Gilles:

Having the lifters knock on startup after a car has not been driven
for awhile is fairly normal (especially as an engine starts to get some
miles on it) but they typically will "pump up" again after running for a
bit; sometimes it's just a few seconds, sometimes longer.  I've read
that, although it sounds bad, nothing bad is happening to your engine
while the lifter(s) knock.

As a broad (over)generallization, it would always be best to bring an
engine up to operating temperature when starting it up, so I'd suggest
you try to do just that as you periodically start up the car over the
winter.  Run it up through the rpm's, hold it at moderate rpm's
(1,000-2,000) for a few minutes, etc. to get the best non-driving warmup
you can, and give the alternator a chance to charge the battery.

On Thu, 7 Jan 1999, Gilles Gallant wrote:

> I recently store my 1990 vanagon for winter (I am living in Montreal
> and  we have a lot of snow and calcium). After 3 week of storing, I went
> to the  garage (heated one) and start my van but what a surprise when I
> started it, I  got a big knocking around the engine and it seems to be
> the valve lifters  that are empty.  Is there any solution to prevent
> that? how can I fill  the lifter again? just by starting the engine?  If
I do that a couple of time during winter will the lifter suffer from that?
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Tom Young               young@sherlock.SIMS.Berkeley.EDU
Lafayette, CA  94549    '81 Vanagon
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