Club 80-90 Forums

After spending two weekends on my new bus fixing the cooling problem, exhaust and getting it ready for the MOT (and passing). The engine (DG) just started makeing a loud noise and I'm not sure if this is connected, but has also blown something black (oil?) out the exhaust, on to my drive.

Could it be the noise be tappets (sounds very loud on the left hand side)? The bus was sounding fine at the weekend, when we took her for an outing, but just started making the noise tonight.

The recently cleaned plugs have also gone quite black again.

Any suggestions please....

Many Thanks

Rich

Is it making any smoke when you drive it ?

If so what colour is the smoke ?

Can you describe the noise ?

Hydraulic tappets can often temporarlily fail to work correctly if the engine is not regularly used.
If it is this, a good drive out often cures it.

No smoke from the exhaust. I'll put some paper down and try to check if the black stuff is soot or oil.

It was running fine at the weekend and only stood for less than two days.

The noise really is quite loud, would that be normal for Tappets?

I read in the wiki that Hydraulic tappets sometimes need adjustment, so i'll take the rocker cover off tonight and see what I can see. I'm not familiar with this type of engine but if I follow the Haynes I hope I won't go too far wrong.

I'll report in again once it gets too dark to work.

Rich Tea wrote:No smoke from the exhaust. I'll put some paper down and try to check if the black stuff is soot or oil.

It was running fine at the weekend and only stood for less than two days.

The noise really is quite loud, would that be normal for Tappets?

I read in the wiki that Hydraulic tappets sometimes need adjustment, so i'll take the rocker cover off tonight and see what I can see. I'm not familiar with this type of engine but if I follow the Haynes I hope I won't go too far wrong.

I'll report in again once it gets too dark to work.

Take it for a run, tappets will sort themselves out after about 10 miles...

If no smoke then I reckon it ain't any thing serious.

Yep as above ^^^ Likely tappets.

They probably don't need adjusting if they were ok in the recent past.

If you wish to check them, do read our wiki entry on the subject first (the Haynes method is not always the best)

See here = https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Hy ... _explained" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Re Black plugs = this is usually caused by a too rich mixture (tho can be oil - but that would make blue smoke).
Is the choke "coming off" OK ? You could check this by holding the choke flap fully open with a bit of wire on the linkage, drive around and check the plugs again.

Let us know...

Thanks again for tips, the good news is that the engine is running sweetly again.

I think the problem may have been down to the oil, I'd changed it from whatever was in it when I bought it to 10w-40. After lots of reading the forums I picked up that some associate this with Tappet noise.

Armed with the encouragement to take it for a good drive and tales of 10w-40 I drove to Halfords and put some STP in it to thicken up the oil. It seemed to work. The round trip was only about 5 miles but all was quiet by the time I'd got home.

I'm not sure why the tappets suddenly went noisy, I'd changed the oil about 2 weeks before and been on an outing of about 120 miles before leaving the van for less than two days. I can only guess that the clean oil must have worked it's way round everywhere and was just too thin to stay in place.

Anyway, I took it the van away this weekend and burnt a whole tank of fuel with no reoccurance.

Thanks again to those that replied, I hope my experience also helps others.

Rich

Glad it is now OK

This brings up a point that I don't recall seeing much mention of on here, oil additives such as STP

I know some engines don't like them but has anyone got thoughts on this subject re WBX engines ?