The ultimate tappet thread

[Ben Lessani]

Not a chance, I baby my tools to sleep!

Its not a loose rattle, its rhymic - its 100% definately tappets. You can hear the ticking as the cam slaps the bucket

[sidecarphil]

Not a chance, I baby my tools to sleep!

LOL me also 20k's worth of snap on to look after 

i will think about your problem but i would try either a new cam or/and new tappets

[DarnPB]

I can't listen to your engine from here, (Now in a hotel room in Gothenberg, Sweden and their firewalls are strict) but someone mentioned sewing machine. Is it all of your tappets or just some of them. If it were some of them, then the sound would be irregular at half engine speed. If all of them, then I am wondering whether you have a dodgy set of tappets or a worn cam shaft. Where did you buy the tappets? I got mine from GSF and they sound OK.
Next time you take the cam cover off, run a thumb nail over the cam lobes and check for any scoring. There is also a splash plate under the cam cover. Have you fitted that correctly? Or is the cam hitting it?
Turn the engine by hand until the dwell of the cam is at the bottom, (with the lobe sticking up) then see if you can get a feeler guage between the cam and the tappet. If the tappets are ok, there should not be a gap. (With engine warm) If there is no gap, then you need to start looking elsewhere for this noise. If there is a gap, then you still have a valve train issue.

[Diamond Hell]

Have you STILL not found an ABF to buy to solve this problem?

[Khare]

Have you STILL not found an ABF to buy to solve this problem?

[Ben Lessani]

I can't listen to your engine from here, (Now in a hotel room in Gothenberg, Sweden and their firewalls are strict) but someone mentioned sewing machine. Is it all of your tappets or just some of them. If it were some of them, then the sound would be irregular at half engine speed. If all of them, then I am wondering whether you have a dodgy set of tappets or a worn cam shaft. Where did you buy the tappets? I got mine from GSF and they sound OK.
Next time you take the cam cover off, run a thumb nail over the cam lobes and check for any scoring. There is also a splash plate under the cam cover. Have you fitted that correctly? Or is the cam hitting it?
Turn the engine by hand until the dwell of the cam is at the bottom, (with the lobe sticking up) then see if you can get a feeler guage between the cam and the tappet. If the tappets are ok, there should not be a gap. (With engine warm) If there is no gap, then you need to start looking elsewhere for this noise. If there is a gap, then you still have a valve train issue.

Thanks very much, very thorough. The guy I bought the tappets from is sending me out another set. So when I get them I will measure the cam lobe height and check the gaps with a feeler. The splash plate is a good point - but it does start of quiet and get louder, but I'll check the inside of the splash plate to see if it has any marks on it.

Does anyone know the correct height for the lobes on a standard 1.8 8v K-Jet EV GTi cam?

[danny_p]

measure them all,  when cams wear  therey wear quick   and never evenly across all the lobes,  one or two lobes will be shorter than the rest.   

if you want to find the dodgey tappet there is a very quick way but you need steady hands and confidence, 

take the rocker cover off,    find a poker that you can prod the tappet bucket with but without getting in the way of the cam,    start engine,   apply pressure to each tappet in turn  when goes quiet have found dodgey tappet.    tho you want to be quick as the cam dose sprinkel oil when runnign without the rocker cover.

other thing to do is check the free travel,  if can poke a blade over 0.1mm  between the back of the cam and tappet  there is an issue, tho  this test can only really be done just after the enigne has been running.


another old trick you can try  is puttign a stick against the cyl head  and to your ear  or get a stethocope  ( very usefull tool )

[sidecarphil]

also try to spin the tappet when the cam is off it

think if memory serves me right you cant turn them by hand if they are ok 

[DarnPB]

also try to spin the tappet when the cam is off it

think if memory serves me right you cant turn them by hand if they are ok 

I think they are designed to turn so that they wear evenly, otherwise you will end up with a valley on the top of the tappet.

[danny_p]

hydro tappets turn in opperation,   that why  hydro and mecanical lifter cams are diffrent .  hydro tappet cams are ground so they turn the lifter a littel bit