Okay, let me start off by saying that I've spent a LOT of time over the last
few days poring over suggestions from the list on how to address my 2.0's
hydraulic lifter noise, and I appreciate very much all the assistance
offered. The suggestion to mix ATF or MMO in with the oil was made by
several of you; I just can't seem to shake the idea that this is a
"snakeoil" cure for my problem (but that's just me). So, I went ahead and
changed the oil last night, the first time since I bought the bus the last
week in Dec. I used Castrol 10w-40 and a larger-than-stock capacity Bosch
filter, because that's what I had on hand. A simple oil/filter change cured
lifter noise on a previous vehicle, so I thought it might work here. Wrong
again, of course.

If it helps any more with diagnosis,here's more background:  The noise seems
to be coming solely from the driver's-side cylinder head. It's a steady
ticking no matter how long the bus runs (the motor now has just over 2k on
it). The bus made a 400+mile round trip at highway speeds this weekend with
no problems. It starts fairly easily hot or cold, and has a rock-steady
idle.  Acceleration (such as it is) is normal/strong, and gas mileage has
been surprisingly good (18-22 in town, 26-28 on the highway). So really,
there are no symptoms of any problems save for the persistent tick of the
lifters. I read the discourse on hydraulic lifters on bostonengine.com, and
combined with the collective wisdom of the list I know this is a problem I
need to fix. I'm still confused by the "pre-load" issue, as well as the
number of adjuster turns, etc. I'm just afraid of trying the wrong thing and
doing irrepairable harm to an otherwise fantastically-running old bus!
Thanks for your time, your patience and your help so far-

JJ
'81 Vanagon 2.0

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