As title, reason i ask is because on my legacy, all tappets are fine apart from one that is REALLY noisy, but it does it intermitantly.
I know that it is in the right hand cylinder head, but unsure which one. The noise seems to be from the rear area ie a tappet for cylinder no.3
On idle, it is quiet for say 30secs, then really noisy for about 30secs, then quiet again etc and it continues.
When driving it just comes and goes, but the length of time for which it will be noisy or quiet is unpredictable.

It is driving me mad now, and i was thinking what could be the cause, which led me to wonder whether the tappets rotate slowly in their bores, and that there is possibly an oil feed problem when the tappet in question is orientated a certain way...?

Any ideas?

Also, any ideas how i could pinpoint the offending tappet? as i believe they are expensive to buy from subaru dealers?

Ian

 

Tappets do indeed rotate in their bores. The land on the cam lobe is fractionaly offset to allow this.
Some hydraulic tappets, asumeimg they are hydraulic can be taken apart, theres normaly a small steel ball and spring inside.
They will presurise with oil to take up the 'clearance'.
Over time these bits can weaken or a small piece of carbon can make them stick and so= noise.
I dont think its worth the hassle of messing with them realy, thats if they can even be dissasembled in the first place.
If you know wich cylinder it is, you maybe better off buying 2 and finish the job IMHO.
Edited to say that the oil feed question will probebly be ok as they normaly have a groove machined around the tappet barrel so as the tappet recieves oil pressure whatever the orrientation of the tappet itself.

[Edited by Leviathan - 9/14/2003 1:25:27 PM]

 

Thanks for that mate

Like i say, i think just from listening briefly that its the rear of the right hand head. I will make a better check though.

There are 4 tappets per cylinder though arent there If i remember correctly, somebody posted on here a while back saying they paid £300 for the set of 16 tappets, so £75 isnt too bad to replace the four, will swap them myself too. Dont want to spend much as its up for sale

Thanks again
ian

 

if you do a search ther is a post from a guy who has just done the
adjusters on his legacy

mart

 

Ive tried to search but it wont, something to do with my pc not having cookies or something, didnt think they needed feeding lol

thanks though
ian

 

I did the post Mart tells you about titled - changing noisy lash adjusters - my faulty one was no 3 rear exhaust which became a permanent noise after a 6500 rpm thrash and so broke the adjuster internal spring. They do not rotate as they are held in with an O ring, and cannot be repaired. They have a ball headed plunger between the hydraulic adjuster and the follower which can rotate. The post is on this page now (last post 21.31 13-09 03).
Hope this helps

Steve

 

Thanks steve,

just had a read of your thread, will have to give it a shot and see how much movement there is in each lifter, and hopefuly i will find something suspect like you did.

cheers
ian

 

I would not be sure legacy lifters do rotate. Dont forget they are totally different to Imprezas bucket style lifters.
They drop into the head, and have o-rings sealing around them. Not sure if the ballstud can rotate, but why would it need to??

I had also read in the past, that it wasnt always the lifter at fault. Thoroughly cleaning the oilways in the cylinder head was supposed to be a cure.
Legacy lifters, as you know arent easy to change. Very small and fiddly, though the noise can be annoying.
You would be very keen to try and change them with the engine in the car. Def engine out.

 

agree with you there steve, only takes about 1.5 hrs to get the engine out, and a lot quicker to work on the tappets when it is.

now you mention about the oilways, i vaguely remember something about that too. dunno what to do now

ian

 

Twin turbo Legacies have solid lifters, rather than hydraulic ones, just out of interest...



Rich.

 

Steve

appologies i forgot your name when posting my reply


Mart