Hi My 87 Westy did that every time I started it, untill I finally put on the
right Oil Filter with the pressure valve in it to hold the oil pressure when
the motro was shut down. Now it's quiet on start up!
\Tom, in No Calif.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf
> Of David Beierl
> Sent: Friday, June 04, 1999 8:05 AM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: Loud Tapping Sound
>
>
> At 07:26 6/4/99 -0700, Mark Kazman wrote:
> >Hi All,
> >I just bought an 81' westfilia, and spent some time getting it in shape
> >for our first family outing, when I started it this morning I got a loud
> >tapping sound from the engine. I thought it was the lifters needing to
> >pump up a bit, but it never stopped.
>
> I had mine do this, shortly after it came over from Scotland and hundreds
> of miles from home on a Sunday.  I was terrified.  Called the mechanic
> who'd just done extensive internal work on the motor and gibbered that the
> thing was falling apart.  He was very blase' -- "just drive it, it's a
> collapsed lifter."  On his instruction I drove it, figuring it was his
> problem if it wrecked the engine but still very reluctantly.  Fifty miles
> later it shut up and was fine.
>
> It's happened a few times since but never lasted more than a 10-15 minutes
> of actual driving.  A tipoff is that it shut down quiet and started up
> noisy.  To verify it for sure you could pop off the valve covers and look,
> or use a stethoscope on the head.
>
> I think you're fine.
>
> david
>
> David Beierl - dbeierl@ibm.net
>