Driverside lifters are ticking, noticed it about 2 days ago. It's pretty mild, but I'm still pretty worried about it. I talked to my mechanic and he said that it was pretty mild and to take it easy, but that they needed to be replaced.

So here are my questions.
1) Is this a common problem for the LT1?
2) Since its "mild" is it still safe to drive on if I baby it?
3) STP Oil additive... yes or no?
4) I've heard of Comp R lifters... is this what I should go with?
5) Should I replace my rockers while I'm at it?
6) The car drives fine and isn't missing or doing anything wierd... but what should I watch out for? What's going to let me know that I shouldn't be driving it anymore?
7) Where do you guys get your Comp R lifters and Rockers from? I would go with 1.6 RR's if I got them, but I don't know if it's necessary.

This sucks, I just ordered my PCM tune today, right before I found out about this. Oh well. Thanks guys, any help here would be appreciated.
-Ryan

 

So here are my questions.
1) Is this a common problem for the LT1?
Happens to ANY car with age

2) Since its "mild" is it still safe to drive on if I baby it?
It will be fine.

3) STP Oil additive... yes or no?
NO

4) I've heard of Comp R lifters... is this what I should go with?
No. They're not going to do a thing for you on a stock motor

5) Should I replace my rockers while I'm at it?
There's no need, but you can.

6) The car drives fine and isn't missing or doing anything wierd... but what should I watch out for? What's going to let me know that I shouldn't be driving it anymore?
No issues unless it gets really loud, or your oil pressure is low.

7) Where do you guys get your Comp R lifters and Rockers from? I would go with 1.6 RR's if I got them, but I don't know if it's necessary.
Got My parts from combination motorsports
cmotorsports.com





Also - You might be hearing fuel injector tick, and not lifter tick. LT1 fuel injectors are quite loud.

 

Well I think its the lifters because you can hear it on the driver side alot better than you can on the passanger side. One thing my mechanic said was, "It usually goes away with higher RPMs, but I can still hear it at 2500." So there's still the possibility of fuel injector tick.

More questions...
1) If I don't need Comp R's then what should I go with to replace them, if that is indeed the problem?

2) Is there a way you can tell if its the injectors or the lifters?

Thanks... Still pretty bummed about all this.
-Ryan

 

1) Stock replacements. Comp Cams part # 850-16

2) Not an easy way

 

I think since my mechanic was damn sure that it was a lifter that I'm going to go with the non Comp R lifter, the $197.xx one.. but shouldn't I go with the Comp R's anyway since they are only $10 more? Or will the others be more than enough? I just want to make sure that they aren't going to crap out on me and that they will last a long time.

By the way, the car has 94,600 miles on it, so I figured something like this would come up. I checked cmotorsports.com and found the prices on 30Ibs injectors, (those are stock right?) and they weren't too bad. My other question is that would this be a good time to upgrade some other stuff that might become problem later down the road? The last performance mod this car is going to see is the computer tune that is on its way. I don't go to the track and I rarely drive it hard, but from time to time I do drive it really hard.

Thanks for the replies Spinner.
-Ryan

 

I'd steer clear of the comp R's

They are much more sensitive to valve lash adjustments than stock and would probably require you to adjust them a few times before your satisfied.
Stock lifters are adjusted to somewhere between 1/2 to 3/4 of a turn, Comp R's are generally 0 to 1/8 of a turn.

I have the Comp R's on my ride right now and will be adjusting them soon again (3rd time) to try to eliminate some the ticking...

 

Ok, another question. I'm going to get stock replacements now, but now I'm confused about something else.

Don't you have to remove the heads to get to the lifters?? How do you adjst them when they're hot if you have to remove the Heads just to get to them? I ask this because If you just have to remove the valve covers or something I'll do it myself.

 

TTT before I sleep.

 

You don't have to remove the heads. The intake has to go though and the valve lifter retainer plate beneath it. Other things that have to go is for example, throttel cables, fuel lines, fuel rail, vacuum and electr. lines to the intake and tb and so on...

You actually don't adjust the lifters themselves, you set the preload on them by turning the nut on the rocker arm bolt a certain amount of turns from 0 lash(No slack between the lifter-pushrod-rocker arm).
Shoebox has a nice write up on adjusting valves:
http://shbox.com/1/4th_gen_tech2.html#adjust_valves

You can check this cam installation write up to get an idea as well:
http://www.streetillusionsracing.com...ll/Cam/cam.htm

 

Oh, alright. That makes sense. Thanks.