Hydraulic lifter bleed down. Usually only one lifter if a cam lobe has that valve fully open when the engine is shut down.

They all do this sooner or later. My '84 did it, my '85 does it, and so does my son's '87. Usually by 140k miles.

Best thing is to drive it at a high rpm until the lifter pumps up.  Freeway travel, or around town in a lower gear to keep the revs around 3000.

In theory, this minimizes the lifter banging as hard on the cam. 

Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Eric Caron
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2015 5:38 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: lifter chatter any concerns?

Hi folks,

        this spring, after over three months not running,  I started my van and amazing no lifter chatter 
        Now, after a recent oil change, same oil as before Mobil 1 15 50 and same filter. the van did a long 600 mile trip to Bus Fusion.  Now I’m noticing that even when the van sits just for 4 or 5 days it will have the lifter chatter for about 8 miles before stopping.

Is this a sign of a problem coming?  Is it something I should not worry about?  Is there anything I can do to improve the situation?

Original 1.9 motor with just over 140,000 well cared for miles.

Eric Caron 
85 GL Auto