The discussions on lifters come up often and there is one thing that you
need to remember about Vanagon and all flat four engines.
The lifters lay on their side.
They tend to bleed off overnight or over a few days since they loose
their oil.
All lifters will not stop at the same rotation so some stay pumped
because the inlet port stops in or near the up position.
The valve spring tension helps in pressing the oil out of the lifters but
if the check valve seats very good it does not collapse the little
internal helper spring in the lifter and the lifters stay primed below
the intake port.
With in line fours and V8s, V6s the lifters are vertical or nearly so. In
this position they will hold more oil than the flat four lifters because
they hold all oil below the inlet port. This is not true of flat four
lifters that can loose all of their oil if the port stops in the facing
down position.
In rare situations five/six/seven of the eight lifters could stop in a
near down port position and when this happens it can take ten minutes to
get the lifters re-pumped. You can get the phenomenon even with very near
perfect hydraulic lifters.
If your engine is in good condition and you have good startup oil
pressure you may never hear the collapsed lifters but if you've got low
startup oil pressure you may hear them for a few moments (Definition: ten
moments = one minute)
Once around the block at moderate engine Rpms usually quieten them down
completely.
Racing the engine can just be pumping oil with air bubbles into the
lifters so consided normal driving the best way to quieten them quickly.

Stan Wilder
83 Air Cooled Westfalia

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