87 VG30 Valve Chatter

[XoXSciFiGuy]

Originally Posted by cadillacdude1975

mine doesnt have any valve noise per say, but the engine does have a lifter raising hell. i need to replace the lifters. if i drive it on the freeway for more than an hour above 70 mph, the lifter does not make a sound. but the tick returns in a few minutes.

This proves lifters DO wear out. The reason it doesn't make any noise on the freeway is because the motor is under less load (cruising) and the spin of the oil pump is faster at higher RPM's, increasing your oil pressure.

[cadillacdude1975]

yup. the old girl has close to a quarter million miles on the clock. i would replace the lifters, but the oil consumption has gotten a little bigger in the last year. it is using two quarts between oil changes. all new cam seals, front seal, valve cover gaskets and the rear main. it has a wet black coating inside the exhaust pipe. not dripping on the ground wet, but wet nonetheless.

[Deerhurst]

Anything mechanical will wear out. Doesn't matter what it is, its just a matter of time.

[XoXSciFiGuy]

CadillacDude says in part:

"...it has a wet black coating inside the exhaust pipe. not dripping on the ground wet, but wet nonetheless."

This is usually caused by wear in the rings. Oil might be slipping past the rings. Are you getting smoky exhaust? If not, it might not be the rings, but another avenue of oil to the exhaust pipe. Neither scenario is good. Just my two cents but it could be approaching rebuild time on the engine, an R and R, or a ring check.

Side note. Whenever you go truck or car shopping, always take your finger and roll it around the end of the exhaust pipe. Dry black carbon is okay. Wet black is not.

[jp2code]

Yay! CadillacDude1975 gets to put a VG33 into the old girl.

[h.stickeye]

Originally Posted by XoXSciFiGuy

CadillacDude says in part:



This is usually caused by wear in the rings. Oil might be slipping past the rings. Are you getting smoky exhaust? If not, it might not be the rings, but another avenue of oil to the exhaust pipe. Neither scenario is good. Just my two cents but it could be approaching rebuild time on the engine, an R and R, or a ring check.

Side note. Whenever you go truck or car shopping, always take your finger and roll it around the end of the exhaust pipe. Dry black carbon is okay. Wet black is not.

If you based your evaluation of a good truck versus a bad truck on the ol tail pipe thing, you would say my truck is no good. I guarantee this is wrong, and my engine will still be going in another 10 years if I did nothing to it. There are lots of reasons why your truck could be eating a little oil, its not doom and gloom.

I have an old chrysler centura that does high 9's on the track and it gobbles oil like no tomorrow. That engine is solid as hell.

[Deerhurst]

Your crystler is probably built to run hot hence you will have looser rings. Might even be built for boost and NOS. Looser rings really help with NOS. Helps reduce the chance of cracking a piston.



The hardbody is not a high temp, top fuel, boosted nitrous burner.

[h.stickeye]

she's just a stroked v8, nothin fancy really except the diff gearing and stall converter.

nah man, the same principle applies, you dont go running off for a rebuild if your burning a little oil, it just doesnt make sense. Do you go out and buy new shoes just because you lost a little tread?

[Deerhurst]

Once you've burned enough oil to pay for a rebuild it makes sense. You will always burn a little oil. You should never be able to measure how much you burn on the dipstick. If you can you better be running huge gaps in your rings for insane combustion chamber temps.

[h.stickeye]

the dipstick on the z24 only shows about 400-500ml from H to L. The z24 takes about 4 litres in total. I burn about 250-300 ml over 1000km's. So it looks alarming by dipstick standards, but its not. Ive still got another 3 litres at least under that L level. The truck only needs about 2.5 liters to run without causing some stress.

The cost of 5 litres of oil is 20 AUD.

My current burn rate uses 5 litres roughly per 15000 km's.

A PROPER rebuild, not just a 150 gasket set, is about 4000 AUD.

I would have to travel the clock on my truck again (roughly 330000km's) at that burn rate, assuming it gets no worse, to justify a rebuild according to your logic.