Thread: LOUD lifter tick

Hey guys have a problem with my 91 sr20. Ive been trying to narrow down this problem for about a week now and think I have finally came to the lifters. Motor has 180,000 miles has been turbod before now its back stock. The problem I am having is a serious ticking noise. As soon as you start car and rev it threw the rpms it stays loud. I am thinking about trying a set of used lifters is thisa good idea? I have NEVER done know valvetrain work so I am a little nervous haha.. I have a Lowport motor in the garage that I could take the lifters out of but dont know if they are the same as a highport. Also to note I guess about a year ago or one of the keepers popped off the rocker arm and I put it back on and its coming ffrom the area im hearing the loud ticking noise from. Its on the #1 cylinder. Any help would be greatly appreciated guys

you sure its a tick...or is it a knock

check your hlas by pushing on them to see if there is air in them. If they feel soft and easy to push in take those out and bleed them. Sounds like you might of lost a shim (did you check and see if they are all there?)

It sounds like a honda tick but 5x louder. Its not deep like a rod knock sounds

What is hlas? Did u mean lash?

how do you adjust valve lash? , i thin hlas means hydraulic lash adjuster .something

yeah, they're Hydraulic Lash Adjusters that are oil pressure driven. As with anything hydraulic, if there's any air in them they'll just compress when any force is applied and not work worth a damn. AFAIK the hydraulics are not adjustable. Unless you did new cams at some point and put in solid lifters, they're going to be hydraulic.

Should you find one that just compresses when you push it, take it out, submerse it in oil (always keep it oriented the same way it is in the engine!) and use a small allen to "push out" the air by inserting it into the small hole in the top, and compressing the HLA.

The HLAs (hlas is plural for hla :rofl should be interchangable between N/A heads. At least mine were.

All OEM sr20 HLA's are interchangeable. There's a thread somewhere around here that describes which are best. I believe the Roller Rocker HLA's are the best, as the oil ports are the largest? Dre posted some pictures for comparison. highport HLA's would be the lowest, lowport being better, and RR being best. GTI-R uses solid lifters IIRC.

Very easy to bleed them. More time consuming to remove cams than to bleed the lifters.

It could also be a bent valve. That's what mine had.