24v lifter tick

[Dphraner]

Hey, anybody ever had a lifter tick come and go? today I took the e30 out for a spin and when I came to a stop I could hear it ticking so I shut it down and checked it over. oil was full so I started it back up and the tick slowly went away. car runs nice and smooth with no lifter noise now. anyone have any ideas?

[Dphraner]

btw its a obd2 m52 with s52 cams

[AndrewBird]

What oil are you running? Thicker oil will help with the ticking. Try 20w50 if you aren't already running it.

[e30austin]

20w50 will quiet it down, but your vanos will wear out prematurely, due to the thickness of the oil. The recommended oil for a 24v is 5w30.

[Balleristic31]

Over fill a bit with 20w50. Works great for track guys.

[Nick_S]

20w50 will quiet it down, but your vanos will wear out prematurely, due to the thickness of the oil. The recommended oil for a 24v is 5w30.

Have not heard this. I run 20w-50 in my E34 to help with lifter tick which drives me nuts. Seems to be a sweet spot in oil temperature. I get almost no tick in the winter. In the warmer months it ticks after about 30 min of normal driving once up to temperature and especially if I'm tooling around in town. Tried all sorts of engine cleaners and nothing seems to help. Seafoam'ed through the brake booster line and that did help for awhile but it inevitably came back. Aside from having the whole top end removed, cleaned and rebuilt I haven't come across any real permanent solution to the problem.

[RobertK]

Seafoam through a vacuum line only cleans carbon off the piston tops and valves. It won't help with cleaning lifters at all.

Lifters usually get ticky when they (A) are contaminated with oil build up / sludge or (B) the associated piston rod bearing or main bearing in line with the lifter is excessively worn and dumping oil pressure.

To clean high mileage lifters the best method I've found is this:

- Dump your existing oil out
- Fill with 4 quarts of Rotella T 15w40 (high detergent conventional oil),
- 1 bottle of Seafoam,
- 1 Quart of ATF (whatever is cheap)
- 1 small bottle of Marvel Mystery oil.
- Go run the piss out of the car for 30 mins.
- Drain the oil again, replace the filter, and dump in your preference of oil.

This will clean out EVERYTHING in your motor. After 30 mins of driving what you empty from the oil pan will be black and spew out of the oil drain hole like water so be ready.

Worked 2 out of 3 times this year because one of them turned out to have a bad rod bearing. The other 2 cars were stock high mileage 24v cars.

Clean lifters won't care what oil weight you run. Heavier weights just raise oil pressure to force the oil into the clogged lifter passages.

[Nick_S]

Got an oil change coming up soon. Will be trying that :up:

[Fusion]

Very temperature dependant. Mine only ticks under 10°C outside for about 2 miles.
Seems to be better when the oil is topped up to the max line for track days and/or after an oil change.
I run 10W60. Seems like Valvoline isn't selling it anymore so may change to 20W50 next time.

[golde30]

this has pretty much been the standard of what i hear from most old school mechanics. I wouldnt run 5w30 in a 24v e30, too damn thin. 5w40 minimum, i like to run 10w50 in my s52.

Seafoam through a vacuum line only cleans carbon off the piston tops and valves. It won't help with cleaning lifters at all.

Lifters usually get ticky when they (A) are contaminated with oil build up / sludge or (B) the associated piston rod bearing or main bearing in line with the lifter is excessively worn and dumping oil pressure.

To clean high mileage lifters the best method I've found is this:

- Dump your existing oil out
- Fill with 4 quarts of Rotella T 15w40 (high detergent conventional oil),
- 1 bottle of Seafoam,
- 1 Quart of ATF (whatever is cheap)
- 1 small bottle of Marvel Mystery oil.
- Go run the piss out of the car for 30 mins.
- Drain the oil again, replace the filter, and dump in your preference of oil.

This will clean out EVERYTHING in your motor. After 30 mins of driving what you empty from the oil pan will be black and spew out of the oil drain hole like water so be ready.

Worked 2 out of 3 times this year because one of them turned out to have a bad rod bearing. The other 2 cars were stock high mileage 24v cars.

Clean lifters won't care what oil weight you run. Heavier weights just raise oil pressure to force the oil into the clogged lifter passages.

[Dphraner]

thanks for the advice. Im running 20w50 syn. ill try to add a little bit. I was cornering pretty hard before the lifter tick happened so it might of sucked some air in the oil pump. the top end sounds good so I hope it was a one time thing. after searching it sounds like the lifters failing is a common problem

[RobertC]

Might sound kind of basic, but I think a oil pan baffle would do the trick.

Under aggressive driving the oil goes everywhere but the pickup. You need to control oil sloshing and aeration of the oil. Oil type or weight won't have much difference.