Hydraulic tappet snake oil

[Cookeh]

That's fair enough, I'm fortunate to be in a position where external factors rarely come into play...as such I forget they can offer a significant constraint on progress.

[RollingThunder]

No worries

TBH I'm not expressing how downright frustrated I feel at times! If it wasn't for the lack of time and the need to get it on the road, I'd have pulled the head off by now. Unfortunately, I'm struggling to find even a few hours free at the weekend so progress is achingly slow.

On the plus side, the hallway redecoration is just about complete, and the new tiled floor is down... but in typical 'one step forward, two steps back' fashion, the oven caught fire last week (electrical fire inside the oven itself) so we're waiting on an electrician to clear the house wiring before we can replace the oven. Luckily no other damage was caused - the fire brigade said the circuit breakers saved the kitchen lol. And then yesterday the Discovery thought it was lacking attention and threw a fault code, so I need to replace the O2 sensors on that...

Its all character building I guess

[ASt85]

Originally Posted by Cookeh

Any engine flush should do the job, you're just looking for something detergent based to break down whatever minor sludge is present in or around that tappet. Might work out cheaper, for future reference, than a named dedicated item.

Luqimoly do a pretty good and reasonably priced flush.

Rather than a using a dedicated flushing oil which can cause problems if you fail to fully clear it, try using a low viscosity oil ie 0-30 or 0-40 oil for a thousand miles or so.
Got both of my Volvos running on Millers Oils XF (synth) Longlife 0w40 A3/B4 SN 229.5 505.00 LL01 as a longer term "clean cycle" prior to next change...the 2004 V70 T5 tappets are a little noisy - it has 114K on the clock - the 2005 C70 is quiet as a lamb but then it has only done 41K showing.

Next oil change will be a millers or opie synthetic 5W/30 or 5w/40...the silence will be welcome in the T5.

[sdg1970]

Originally Posted by ASt85

Rather than a using a dedicated flushing oil which can cause problems if you fail to fully clear it, try using a low viscosity oil ie 0-30 or 0-40 oil for a thousand miles or so.

I must admit I forgot to say up thread, I did precisely that 2 years back. I put in 0/30 for around 1500 miles, then drained and refilled with 15/40, which I've used without issue ever since.

I will say though the car didn't really like the thinner oil and caused a hissing noise from the oil filter, which has thankfully never happened since...

[volvo2]

In case this helps anyone - I had this tappet noise on start up and it started to sound really bad, although only lasted a couple of seconds. I am glad to say it has completely gone away after I:

- Switched from Castrol Magnatec 10W- 40 to 5W-40 C3 Fully Synthetic (Actually I mixed four ltr of the 5w-40 with 10w-40).

- Added Wynns 76858 Hydraulic Valve Lifter Treatment

I am not sure whether it was the treatment or the thinner oil that solved the issue (or perhaps a mixture of the two) but it is very good to be back to normal after thinking the engine was on the way out (28 years old / 210k miles)!

[RollingThunder]

Thanks for resurrecting this thread, I'd forgotten to update it.

It refers to my old S70 T5 which I sold a while ago, but the Wynn's Hydraulic Valve Treatment did the trick for me - I can't remember exactly what I did, but I followed the instructions, and the tappety noise went within a few days. The injectors were always noisy, but thats another issue