I have a "tapping" noise that only appears when I first start the car and once warmed up it lessons, but does not go away. I've had this "valve chatter" since I've owner the car (2001 Disco II - original Owner) I'vebeen told the Land Rover's have loud valves.I've notice the chatter is directly proportional to the oil levels. Is this true? It gets louder under load as well.

Second, I notice the temp. outside affects the intensity of the noise. Is thiscommon inLand Rovers and something to do with the lifter / oiling design? BTW the motor has approx 160,000miles on it now and still going w/o many major issues. Also, I have been running fully synthetic oil (Moble10W 30) since I've Owner the truck and 93 octane fuel. Outside of dealing with the irritating noise, Is there something that I should do?

Any comments or thoughts?

 

I find nothing wrong with the oil or fuel that
you are using.

The motor may have a lifter or more than one getting
bad spot on it them, you do have a few miles on it.

Find a independent Rover mechanic to look at it,
ask around to find a good one as a bad one
may try to give you some bs.

 

Before you do anything, plan on doing an engine flush, with 6 quarts of ATF, to clean out the engine, then it is time to open her up, looking for a bad rocker shaft, lifters and or cam.

 

Flush with ATF? I never heard of that?What type of ATF... & how long do I run it for and at what RPM? Will this leave a residue in the motorthat will contaminate the oil?

I searched ATF flush and found some more info...still not sure about the contamination issue.

Also, The discohas 163,000 miles on it and I always ran Mobil 1 synthetic 10W40 changed every 6,000. Should I think about using 15W50 since it has high milage? I'veheard I shouldbe careful about running 15w-50 in a motor with a high volume oil pump. By doing soit may run into cavitation problems - oil gauge jumping wildly....does anyone have any suggestions?

 

Rovers are actually low volumn pumps.
If you want to give me a call, I would be glad to answer all your questions.
303-862-7680
Colorado between 7 am and 8 pm

 

OK....By suggestion of the good contributors to this site I performed an AFT engine flush and switched toa K&N oil filter. The ticking wasn't eliminated...SO my situation is this.....

I have a slow coolant leak which I have narrowed down to a passanger side head gasket (dripping from back of motor). I changed the valley pan gasket when I changed the valve cover gaskets abouta month ago and the leak did not go away. So the next project is head gaskets.

Since I will have the heads off, and given the milage on the truck, I have decided to take care of the tapping noise at the same time. My question is this:

I was going to do a "top end rebuild" on the motor which would more than likely be new heads, gaskets, bolts, etc. (I was going to replace the heads in lieu of having them straightend up ..I think they are approx $550 ea from Atlantic British) So I am undecided what other components to address since other than the leak and and tapping noise there are no signs of wear. No milky oil, or coolant discoloration, no smoke of any kind from the exhaust, Just dripping coolant and what sounds like "valve chatter" to me.

I am trying to narrow down the noise... either lifters, rocker assembly but need some help with this. I know noises are hard to describe via the internet, but while I had the motor apart, I figured it would make good sense to address the valve train.

If I do the lifters, do I need to do the cam at the same time, or can I get away with lifters only with just assembly lube and break-in period to wear-in the lifters?

What about rocker assembly, any components that could contribute to the "chatter"

Anything about the valve train I need to be aware of on the DISCO II? I have installed high performance cam / lifters / rockers before on older Chevy motors, but want to make sure this wasn't anything too different from that?

 

Rockers arms are a weak item in our engines. With your mileage and a oil pressure test to verify good oil pressure, I would say it will most likely be the rockers.
As for the lifters, here again, if there are some bad ones, the lobes on the cam will have lost some of their hardened finish so both the cam, lifter and time.chain/gears would need to be replaced.

 

If you are going that far just do in truck rebuild.

 

I use M1 15w50 in my '97 with over 172k and have no problems, I change mine every 5k and use Mopar oil filters from Wal-Mart.
Before you tear into it put the 15w50 in and see if the noise goes away, if it does than just do your head gaskets and forget the rest, if not then you are out nothing.

 

to test the rocker shafts, take a small flathead screwdriver and see if you can turn the cup, where the pushrod sits in there. if they turn, theyre bad. as for the lifters, id say most likely, if the noise goes away after a few minutes, it sounds like theyre 'sinking down', losin oil pressure, as they get pumped back up, the noise goes away, if the atf flush didnt expand the seals enough, you will probly need at least one lifter.