Club 80-90 Forums

My van isn't used all that often but is moved off the drive regularly. I moved it out the car port Wednesday night to work on a mower engine. Then put it back in. Jumped in it today to pull it out and do a bit of work in it and the engine is now tapping quite loudly and hasn't improved once warm or after a short drive. I'm not overly confident in my knowledgeable of these engines yet so was hoping for some possible causes or solutions. The tapping/slapping/knocking noise is constant and it's rate is consistent with engine revs. It's volume hasn't changed at all since stone cold through warm up or driving...

This is raised here about every other week. Drained tappet. Common problem. Solution - take the van for a 20 minute drive at about 50mph and the problem will go away. Leave the van for too long and the issue will return.
If you look inside your Haynes manual they mention this in some detail. Worth reading up.

If it does not go away after 20 mins hard driving then change the oil
Should be every 5000 or 6 months anyway

Took it for a 15 minute drive and didnt notice a change, oil is only 2 months and 500 miles old. Its still lovely and clean too! I was more worried about doing damage to anything. I might just have to brave it and take it for a longer drive.


Sorry for the daft question, i was in a bit of a panic so didnt look through the wiki

Did you take it for a run for 20 mins at 50mph? A 15 minute drive at lower speeds around town will not do it.

You won't damage anything in 20 mins hard driving.
200 miles might cause the valve stem to shorten a thousandth of an inch

Drive it like you stole it!

What oil did you use?

I can't remember but is was recommened in the wiki.

kevtherev wrote:
What oil did you use?

In my personal experience semi synthetic oil can exacerbate this common issue, good ol mineral oil seems to be better ( stands back in anticipation of the usual mineral V semi-synthetic debate )

As suggested , warm her up then give her a good thrashing . Its amazing how bad this noise is..... Obviously there are other causes of bad noises.... but if it was all okay before , then no need to worry about things like this

15w40 semi i think. Thats the only bottle i can see in the shed..... hahahaha

Pionte, that looks nasty! What caused that?

We think a tinware type screw.

CovKid wrote:We think a tinware type screw.

Detective Covkid has, I think worked out the culprit ! interestingly it made a similar noise to when the tappets drain down, but the coolant from the exhaust pipe gave me a slight clue that all was not well

When I ran semi in my 1.9DG ( The engine that still purrs ) It would drain down after a week or so of not being used , with good old mineral it is less frequent . Very important that a decent oil filter is used as well, the consensus is that Mann are about the best.

It can be a horrendous noise though and I can appreciate why when people hear it for the first time it scares the bejesus out of them.

pionte wrote:

CovKid wrote:We think a tinware type screw.

It can be a horrendous noise though and I can appreciate why when people hear it for the first time it scares the bejesus out of them.

Scared the bejesus out of me when it happen to me last week.

Carlube triple rrr oil and Mann filters. Bonus of working at pages. Is brand of oil important or not I'm under the impression it's not as a grade of oil should be a grade of oil regardless of brand.

And I'll be honest I bricked myself when I heard it....

JamesKT25 wrote:Carlube triple rrr oil and Mann filters. Bonus of working at pages. Is brand of oil important or not I'm under the impression it's not as a grade of oil should be a grade of oil regardless of brand.

I do miss my Pages staff discount.