Ok, so we returned on Sunday from a 600 mile trip to Buses of the Corn - no
mechanical problems at all - no weird sounds, temp right on, no flickering
lights - nothing but smooth sailing.

Same goes for Monday an Tuesday during my daily 40 mile round trip commute
to work. All is well.

I get in this mornign and start up the bus and I hear TICK, TICK, TICK, TICK
- loud terrible sounding. I turn off the engine and check the oil - all is
well (20/50 Castrol changed just before our Corn trip).

So I think it could be lifter noise - I've heard that before and it's pretty
horrible. So I drive it a bit. Other than the tick nothing strange at all -
no loss in power, no smoke, not odd idle, nothing.

So after a short bit of running the engine the ticking did go away (it may
still be there just faintly). So I carefully proceeded to work.

My question is this: If it is the lifters why, after having no other
instances of this, would I suddenly have this issue? Is this a sign of some
other impending doom? Should I be checking something else?

I guess I don't want to assume all is well and blow up the engine tomorrow
or the next day on the way to work. Again all seems well now but it just
seemed odd. I think I am going to drive it by the local VW expert at lunch
and see what he thinks. I'd still love to hear your thoughts an opinions.

--
Thanks,

Jeff
'85 GL (Gertie)
'90 Carat (Grover - the noble parts donor)
'86 (We call this one Scrap)
'78 Bus (Melissa) Patty's Bus