lash adjusters

[666damned]

I've finally had enough of the bloody rattling top end...i think theres a single lash adjuster giving me grief and driving me insane....i replaced them all about 1k miles ago....just done another oil and filter....and she still repays me by chatting away...lol........when i did the adjusters i noticed a bit of oil in the spark plug tubes but didnt have new seals at the time....so i'm going to change the plugs replace the valve cover gaskets and spark plug tube seals at the same time...but i have a question guys......the lash adjusters must have an oil feed of some sort....can they become blocked?...anybody know of where the feed is? ...and lastly ,can it be accessed to clean?

[Davezj]

what lash adjusters did you buy?
if they were from the last group buy then you will have been one of the unlucky ones. as some of them were faulty and tic like old ones.


the oil feed for the adjuster is the small hole in the side.
the oil feed channel is the casting in the head that the adjuster sits in,
the oil way in the head vents in a jet of oil that squirts out the oil cap on the front when you take it off. other oil ways vent in other places in the head. so with the rocker covers off you can put catch cups upside down over the vents and crank the engine with the cam and crank sensor disconnected to stop the engine firing, and check the all the vents are pumping oil out of them.

well you can do the oil way check like this.

[666damned]

thanx for the swift reply and info dave....no i didnt get them in the group buy....but off e-bay...cost me IIRC £230....the chanel the adjuster sits in dave...is it accessible?.....i assumed the the hole in the side of the adjusters were for the oil flow...but they are tiny aren't they....gonna take em all out again and have a look at them....or,and the new adjuster were of the 3mm type...the same as the ones i replaced....lol...

[Davezj]

the holes on the side of the adjusters are about 1mm the hole the adjuster goes into has a grove all the way round the bore at the same hight as the small hole in the adjuster so it does not matter what rotaion the adjuster is at it will always have an oil feed to it.
did you pre fill the adjuster with oil before fitting them?
did you do the air bleed procedure to try and quite them down?
what grade oil are you using, 5w-30 0w-30 is best fully synth but i use 0w-40 and have had good reuslt with that but it does require 3500 - 4000 mile changes.

A good quality oil with the cleaning additives used regularly can keep the tic tic tic away. personally i have never tried to clean the oil ways in the head, but i would guess it is possible to do, but as you say probably the only way is with the adjusters out.
you could use something like a pipe cleaner of very small bottle brush sometime brass one are available to push down the oil ways in the head, but you would have to be really careful as you would have to blow out the deris with an air line and catch it in paper towel or something similar. but i don't know if this will effect anything as i have never done it.

the other thing you can try is listen for the noisy adjuster in for current set and only replace that one or two. get an automotive stethascope to listen to them.

[666damned]

thanx for your help dave....i didn't pre fill the adjusters before fitting,but i did do the bleed procedure...the gaskets,seals and plugs arrived today...but i wont be able to fit them for another couple of weeks....you mention pre filling them dave...how do you go about this?........i use a 0-30w fully synth oil and always changed every 3-4k miles........i dont think i'll be attacking the oil ways with an airline...i'll probably f**k something up...lol....but i am intending removing all the adjuster's...even if all i do is re bleed them ...but will pre fill with this time...

[Davezj]

put the adjuster under oil in a jar and then pump the nipple on the top whilst hloding down the valve in the middle of the adjuster.

all this will do is stop the long really loud tic tic tic period at the start just after fitting them. if they are good adjusters they should fill up with oil eventually. i have done it both with and without filling them and they both times they went quiet afterwards the unfilled ones just took aboput an hour of bleeding to get them to shut up eventually.

[666damned]

cheers dave........

[swinks]

Those from eBay are 3mm ones.
Posted previously that 3mm tappets are worth nothing more than bin, unfortunately.

[666damned]

Those from eBay are 3mm ones.
Posted previously that 3mm tappets are worth nothing more than bin, unfortunately.

i was under the impression that the 3mm were the upgrade size from original .......strange thing is though,i removed 3mm to replace with 3mm.....i am the first uk owner of my vr4 so she came to the uk with the upgraded 3mm already fitted......i am now confused...what other sizes are available?

[Gingerfish]

I bought the 3mm tappets from ebay about 2 years ago and had them changed at the garage I use. Never had any more ticking problems even when cold in the depths of winter. Has been fine ever since.
I do recall them saying that it took a while to seat and adjust them slightly though. They were a bit of a faff to get just right.

[666damned]

alex...you say you had them changed,which did you have put in?......i must be losing the plot as well.....i thought hydraulic lifters were non adjustable.....

[swinks]

i was under the impression that the 3mm were the upgrade size from original .......strange thing is though,i removed 3mm to replace with 3mm.....i am the first uk owner of my vr4 so she came to the uk with the upgraded 3mm already fitted......i am now confused...what other sizes are available?

In my posts regarding fitting 262 cams it appears that there are several reports from UK and NZL (I know about 6 cases with different sources) about 3mm uprated tappets that don't work with vr4. That's regardless of source people bought them from. Seems that from purchased 24 pieces always approx. half of batch is faulty and don't keep pressure. I guess it's not due their quality. It seems for me, that those tappets ain't working properly with 6A13 dohc engines.
Personally I'd stick with genuine Mitsi one with 1mm hole.
But it's up to you, hence me saying "whatever"

[Davezj]

The 1mm hole ones were replaced by Mitsubishi and are now suppliered as 3mm ones, I bought one from Mitsubishi a few years ago and was told the only ones they supply now is the 3 mm ones.
So i think you will be lucky to find some of the original 1mm adjusters anywhere.

I know what you are saying tomasz about the adjusters design.the oil leak out from the adjuster is through the hole in the side of it, which is a very small hole. But this small hole is the same hole the goes through to pump up the adjuster and an equally valid thought would be make this side hole bigger to allow the oil to get in to the adjuster more easily under initial start up.
But that is just a theory.