From: Hachiroku ハチロク on
I'm crossing this to Honda and Toyota because there are some sharp
individuals in these groups, and also in the Ford group since this is a
common engine among Fords, IIRC.

The problem: 1989 Mazda 626. Over the course of the winter, occasionally
on cold days the engine would clack from just under the valve cover. Since
I seem to recall seeing somewhere that this engine has hydraulic lifters
of some sort, it just seemed that allowing the engine to warm and
circulate oil would cause this to stop as the lifters (or whatever!)
responded to the rise in oil pressure. It always worked, and when it
didn't, I would check the oil, add 2/3 3/4 of a quart, and be done with it.

Saturday the oil was down less than 1/4 from the Full on the dipstick.
Since it's getting an oil change in about 500 miles, I let it go.

This morning I had to make a trip about 30-35 miles one way. When I
returned home I noticed the engine was making a louder noise than usual,
and when I went to investigate it was the clacking noise from under the
Valver Cover. I shut the car off and let it cool.

Before I left the house later, I added 2/3 of a quart of Castrol Synthetic
(the closest bottle of oil I had) and started it. I let it run for a
while but the clacking continued. I added about 1/3 quart of Marvel
Mystery and let it run till warm and the noise never went away. After
parking the car for about 2.5 hours, when I started it up the clacking was
still there. I drove home still clacking, but quieter.

The partiulars: this is the 2.0L 12-vavle engine, OHC, new timing belt
<3,000 miles ago, fuel injected. It's going to get parked in 1-3 weeks
when I take my Supra out of winter storage. Any ideas about what it is or
what I should look for? If I find the Haynes I will be able to answer more
questions concerning the motor. It looks good and runs great, even with
the clacking.


From: Ray O on

"Hachiroku ????" <Trueno(a)AE86.gts> wrote in message
news:JYiQh.8917$IY4.8369(a)trndny03...
> I'm crossing this to Honda and Toyota because there are some sharp
> individuals in these groups, and also in the Ford group since this is a
> common engine among Fords, IIRC.
>
> The problem: 1989 Mazda 626. Over the course of the winter, occasionally
> on cold days the engine would clack from just under the valve cover. Since
> I seem to recall seeing somewhere that this engine has hydraulic lifters
> of some sort, it just seemed that allowing the engine to warm and
> circulate oil would cause this to stop as the lifters (or whatever!)
> responded to the rise in oil pressure. It always worked, and when it
> didn't, I would check the oil, add 2/3 3/4 of a quart, and be done with
> it.
>
> Saturday the oil was down less than 1/4 from the Full on the dipstick.
> Since it's getting an oil change in about 500 miles, I let it go.
>
> This morning I had to make a trip about 30-35 miles one way. When I
> returned home I noticed the engine was making a louder noise than usual,
> and when I went to investigate it was the clacking noise from under the
> Valver Cover. I shut the car off and let it cool.
>
> Before I left the house later, I added 2/3 of a quart of Castrol Synthetic
> (the closest bottle of oil I had) and started it. I let it run for a
> while but the clacking continued. I added about 1/3 quart of Marvel
> Mystery and let it run till warm and the noise never went away. After
> parking the car for about 2.5 hours, when I started it up the clacking was
> still there. I drove home still clacking, but quieter.
>
> The partiulars: this is the 2.0L 12-vavle engine, OHC, new timing belt
> <3,000 miles ago, fuel injected. It's going to get parked in 1-3 weeks
> when I take my Supra out of winter storage. Any ideas about what it is or
> what I should look for? If I find the Haynes I will be able to answer more
> questions concerning the motor. It looks good and runs great, even with
> the clacking.
>
Collapsed lifter?
--

Ray O
(correct punctuation to reply)



From: Hachiroku ハチロク on
On Tue, 03 Apr 2007 00:11:08 -0500, Ray O wrote:

>> The partiulars: this is the 2.0L 12-vavle engine, OHC, new timing belt
>> <3,000 miles ago, fuel injected. It's going to get parked in 1-3 weeks
>> when I take my Supra out of winter storage. Any ideas about what it is
>> or what I should look for? If I find the Haynes I will be able to answer
>> more questions concerning the motor. It looks good and runs great, even
>> with the clacking.
>>
> Collapsed lifter?


Um, that would be my guess, if I knew what it meant...for sure...I think...

;)

From: Hachiroku ハチロク on
On Tue, 03 Apr 2007 00:11:08 -0500, Ray O wrote:

>> The partiulars: this is the 2.0L 12-vavle engine, OHC, new timing belt
>> <3,000 miles ago, fuel injected. It's going to get parked in 1-3 weeks
>> when I take my Supra out of winter storage. Any ideas about what it is
>> or what I should look for? If I find the Haynes I will be able to answer
>> more questions concerning the motor. It looks good and runs great, even
>> with the clacking.
>>
> Collapsed lifter?


From a 'forum':

Possibly a sticky or collapsed lifter. A bent pushrod (or one that's a
little short) also comes to mind as a possibility. A worn rocker or
rocker fulcrum will also cause problems like this.

If the motor is sitting there running like a watch other than the
light ticking, I'd put some Rislone in it to help loosen up any
deposits and drive it around a little....like slowly around the block.
Then swap in some fresh oil (5W-30 Mobil 1 synthetic seems to clean up
old deposits very well for me) and drive it briskly (don't beat the
snot out of it at valve float but don't drive it like grandma does
either) and drive it often as possible. Swap the oil out at short
intervals (500-1000 miles) for a few thousand miles and see if that
quiets things down. It'll either get better with time (a sticky lifter)
or stay the same (or get worse) which could be a slightly collapsed
lifter or bent pushrod.

If it doesn't improve with good oil and drive time then it may have to
come apart to be inspected. If it gets any worse that a light tapping
and/or if the vaccum gauge starts dancing with the tick or if you start
getting a characteristic 'fhtup' out of one end or the other them stop
the motor and pull it down for inspection.

_______________________________


This doesn't sound like fun. I use Marvel Mystery Oil all the time (since
I got it) so I don't expect it's sludge. Don't tell me my $600 bargain
just STB...


From: Hachiroku ハチロク on
On Tue, 03 Apr 2007 12:46:23 +0000, E Meyer wrote:

>
>
>
> On 4/2/07 9:27 PM, in article JYiQh.8917$IY4.8369(a)trndny03, "Hachiroku
> ハチロ ク" <Trueno(a)AE86.gts> wrote:
>
>> I'm crossing this to Honda and Toyota because there are some sharp
>> individuals in these groups, and also in the Ford group since this is a
>> common engine among Fords, IIRC.
>>
>> The problem: 1989 Mazda 626. Over the course of the winter, occasionally
>> on cold days the engine would clack from just under the valve cover.
>> Since I seem to recall seeing somewhere that this engine has hydraulic
>> lifters of some sort, it just seemed that allowing the engine to warm
>> and circulate oil would cause this to stop as the lifters (or whatever!)
>> responded to the rise in oil pressure. It always worked, and when it
>> didn't, I would check the oil, add 2/3 3/4 of a quart, and be done with
>> it.
>>
>> Saturday the oil was down less than 1/4 from the Full on the dipstick.
>> Since it's getting an oil change in about 500 miles, I let it go.
>>
>> This morning I had to make a trip about 30-35 miles one way. When I
>> returned home I noticed the engine was making a louder noise than usual,
>> and when I went to investigate it was the clacking noise from under the
>> Valver Cover. I shut the car off and let it cool.
>>
>> Before I left the house later, I added 2/3 of a quart of Castrol
>> Synthetic (the closest bottle of oil I had) and started it. I let it run
>> for a while but the clacking continued. I added about 1/3 quart of
>> Marvel Mystery and let it run till warm and the noise never went away.
>> After parking the car for about 2.5 hours, when I started it up the
>> clacking was still there. I drove home still clacking, but quieter.
>>
>> The partiulars: this is the 2.0L 12-vavle engine, OHC, new timing belt
>> <3,000 miles ago, fuel injected. It's going to get parked in 1-3 weeks
>> when I take my Supra out of winter storage. Any ideas about what it is
>> or what I should look for? If I find the Haynes I will be able to answer
>> more questions concerning the motor. It looks good and runs great, even
>> with the clacking.
>>
>>
>>
> I used to have a '90 Mazda B2200 pickup. There was an acknowledged
> problem with the engine in those that the oil ports to the valve
> hydraulics were too small. It started making the noise at startup at
> about 30k miles. Switching it to Mobil 1 5w-30 fixed the problem for the
> remaining 10 years that I owned it.
>
> IIRC thicker oils made the problem worse, and for some reason, that engine
> absolutely hated Castrol synthetic - mileage dropped and it would use a
> quart/1000 miles with Castrol, but never used a drop with any other brand
> of oil.


I wonder if flushing and refilling with lighter weight oil will prevent me
from having to rip out the Lash Adjusters...