Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Got a noisy lifter in my Subaru L-Wagon. Put a bottle of that nulon lifter free in, and on Saturday I am going to do an oil and filter change and put another bottle in, but I'm guessing by the sound of it something is broken rather than sticking, maybe a valve or something.

First of all, could I have caused this by giving the motor a bit of a hard hit? As I was cruising up the beach Chrissy arvo and didn't see a little wind hill, and got air at about 60km/h came down a bit hard on the front end and that's when it started. Hence why I think it's broken.

Secondly, it's not running rough or even down on power. As it's an old shit heap I'd prefer not to spend un-necessary money on it, so how bad is it if I run it like it is?

Are you shore it's lifter and not a leaking manifold or cylinder head gasket, either can sound like a lifter.. does it reduce or go away when hot.

Teg

Know nothing about Subaru engines but.....

You didn't bash the sump did you ? Have seen cranks hitting on sumps after big hits and they make a knocking noise and surprisingly don't always leak.

easy to check.

Just had a look and sump is fine, no dents or anything. Noise is constant from cold start up to full running. Can't see any leaking coolant or oil.

Oh the other thing I forgot to mention is engine was fairly down on oil when I checked (only just showing on bottom of dipstick). Dunno if that's enough to dry the lifters out but I filled it to the full mark on the dipstick and 500km run back to Sydney later it hasn't changed.

Cheers Brendan

Oh the other thing I forgot to mention is engine was fairly down on oil when I checked (only just showing on bottom of dipstick). Dunno if that's enough to dry the lifters out but I filled it to the full mark on the dipstick and 500km run back to Sydney later it hasn't changed.

Yep that would do it, sounds like the oil pickup had nothing to....er...well pickup whilst catching a bit of air or on impact. Maybe the lifter ran dry and stuffed the seal? Don't know the Suby engine well enough to recommend a fix.

Teg

Hmm that sounds pretty likely Teg, cheers mate.

I'm not too concerned about a fix as it only has 6 weeks rego left and I don't think I'll bother re-registering it.

I read somewhere that you need a lower viscosity oil to run through dry lifters as the heavier grade stuff for older engines is too thick? Anyway I'll try an oil and filter change, and another bottle of that lifter free stuff, in a couple of hundred kms and see how it goes.

Cheers Brendan

Those engines are noisy at the best of times.

best bet is to remove the rocker cover and have a look at the noisy side.
I think its 2 or 4 12mm bolts to remove, it will drip oil when removed, so be prepared for that.


Trains

Thanks trains, yeah I reckon I will do that next week if this Lifter Free stuff doesn't help it.

Can I be doing damage to shit by driving it like it is?

subaru engines have done this forever. remove oil pump and replace o rings. they square off and the oil pump sucks in air and makes lifters rattle. have repaired heaps of them . after this repair they get oil presure a lot quicker.

Woz your bloods worth bottling mate. I'll get straight onto it. That makes sense as the lifters were noisy for about 45-60 seconds of a morning until oil pressure came up.

Could be a cracked exhaust manifold too, or blown manifold gasket, good luck with it

Do these Subaroo motors even have lifters? I thought they were OHC

Ruff, was talking to a mate who has owned about six of these buggers, and he said he'd had two with the same symptoms, and he reckoned sticky lifter making the noise. Don't these have cams? I've only owned it for a couple of weeks so have barely had time to look under the bonnet at the POS let alone learn about boxer engines.

4130warrior wrote:Ruff, was talking to a mate who has owned about six of these buggers, and he said he'd had two with the same symptoms, and he reckoned sticky lifter making the noise. Don't these have cams? I've only owned it for a couple of weeks so have barely had time to look under the bonnet at the POS let alone learn about boxer engines.

He would know better than me then. I drove one for about an hour once and it blew a headgaskit

4130warrior wrote:Ruff, was talking to a mate who has owned about six of these buggers, and he said he'd had two with the same symptoms, and he reckoned sticky lifter making the noise. Don't these have cams? I've only owned it for a couple of weeks so have barely had time to look under the bonnet at the POS let alone learn about boxer engines.

Depends if it is an early or late model L, the earlys had the EA81 which is a pushrod OHV, the later EA82 being a SOHC, which shouldnt have hydraulic lash adjusters, they are solid adjustable tappet type im pretty certain but not 100%.

It didn't like you Tony

Sparky, the engine in mine is the EA82 as you said....

4130warrior wrote:It didn't like you Tony

Thats OK i didnt like it either. It blew the headgaskit while chuckin donuts in reverse

if you have the l series wagon or car like the brumby, yes they do have lifters


dads owned 7 of them, he said tappets are allways noisey so just given you his advice

Cheers Adam, that pretty much confirms everything I've heard from other people about em being noisy. I'm still going to order a seal kit for the oil pump on Monday and put that through and see how it goes.

On a side note it just completed a 400km drive to Port Macquarie in 3WD/RWD after I snapped a CV doing a burnout and CFB changing it. Just whacked it into 4WD Hi and it's sweet as

gotta love those weak subie constant velocity joints,dad did severel of them going up stuff subies aint supposed to

WOZ wrote:subaru engines have done this forever. remove oil pump and replace o rings. they square off and the oil pump sucks in air and makes lifters rattle. have repaired heaps of them . after this repair they get oil presure a lot quicker.

Woz is on the money here.

they usually leak just under the pump, and most people complain about the leak, and we fix them before they get like that.
Funny how much stuff you can forget at times ;(

Trains

Ps, its not a difficult job mate.