Well, the muffler problem turned lifter problem has been solved. To briefly recap, when my normally quiet engine all of the sudden turned loud, I immediately suspected the muffler. What I was not hearing was the loud tapping of a stuck hydraulic lifter -- my mechanic pointed this out to me. He suggested an oil change with some Slick 50. I did the oil change but passed on the Slick 50. I have heard questionable things about them before and several people on the list wrote me to warn me about this stuff. Taking the advice of Sean and Justin, I changed the oil and added 10W40 which is a little lighter and therefore would help to flush out my lifter. Sure enough, after starting the car with the new oil in, my noise went away as the oil light turned off. What a relief. I think the force of the new oil flowing through the engine was enough to flush away the offending particle(s). What also helped was letting the oil drain for an hour or so (try that at Jiffy Lube). Anyway, thanks again to all those who responded. With this list, I feel like I have a protective extended family ;-) Scott Semyan '85 Westie Seattle |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.