My last waterboxer always took 20-30 minutes of highway driving to pump up
a few lifters after sitting for a few months.  Sounded pretty terrible
until it did...

Jason

On Sat, Apr 11, 2015 at 1:26 PM, John Rodgers <jrodgers113@gmail.com> wrote:

> This is the infamous Vanagon Lifter Syndrome. For whatever reason,
> virtually all the WBX  lifters bleed down one time or another after sitting
> a while, and sometimes from one stop to the next. They rattle until they
> pump up again. Harmless enough. Just drive the thing a half hour or so or
> some distance until they pump up. The noise goes away!
>
> John
> On Apr 11, 2015 11:52 AM, "Richard Smith" <richard_smith@gnwc.ca> wrote:
>
> > Mine developed this noise, too, after a long storage the winter before
> > last. It would *sometimes* go away if I got the engine warmed up
> > completely and then shut it down for 20-30 minutes. A more experienced
> > engine person than me attributed this to different metals all getting to
> > the same temperature and then cooling together.
> >
> > I was assured by the mechanic that it wasn¹t harmful (the noise is valve
> > ³lifters² not the valves themselves), and lived with it for quite a
> while.
> > During a recent major tuneup and oil change, the mechanic added some
> > Automatic Transmission Fluid to the engine oil and let the engine idle
> for
> > an hour (!). Then he drained the oil and replaced it. The noise has
> > (almost) completely gone away.
> >
> > You may find that your noise goes away by itself after driving it for a
> > few days. I would certainly try that first before doing any more serious
> > things. And the Automatic Transmission Fluid ³fix² may or may not have
> > been a real thing, but it cost next to nothing and seems to have worked
> > for me.
> >
> > The best way to keep it away is to drive it regularly, if find.
> >
> >
> >
> > On 2015-04-11, 9:01 AM, "Stuart Fedak" <ve3smf@YAHOO.COM> wrote:
> >
> > >I just picked up my 1986 Vanagon Westfalia GL 2.1 from storage, where it
> > >has been for the past six months.  The engine started up fine, but it
> now
> > >has a sticky valve type sound on the driver side of the engine.  This
> > >noise was not there last fall when the Vanagon was put into storage.
> > >
> > >Is this something that has to be corrected right away, or is this
> > >something that will go away with time?  What could cause this noise from
> > >happening, right after longer term storage?
> > >
> > >Your thoughts?
> > >Stuart
> > >Ottawa, ON
> > >
> > >Sent from my electronic umbilicus
> >
>