1994-1997 Honda Accord V6

[James Matteu]

I have established that when my car is anywhere below 4 quarts there is a persistant tapping coming from the motor. Here is the wierd part, the car only needs about 4 quarts and 8 ounzes or so (4 liters approx.).

 

What gives?! I am confident the tapping is coming from the hydraulic tappets since I can diminish the sound incrementally by adding one more quater to the 4 with 200 mL aliquot of 5W30.

 

I just performed this little experiment for the third time today (so it is repeatable for you science fans) and yielded the same results.

 

Any suggestions? Has anybody ever heard of this? Is my engine just old or is she being greedy. Why does the green-B need 5 quarts to be happy?

 

FYI: my wife calls my car the green b!#&h, hence a more censored "green-b".

[vr4girl]

so.. just the lifters keep ticking? im a mitsu girl, but i say replace the lifters... it usually calms them down a good bit.. unless it was a mitsu.. thats like their trademark.

[chris_agu28]

same goes for some nissans.

[James Matteu]

so.. just the lifters keep ticking?

 

They only tick with less than 4 quarts, they quite down from 4-5 quarts and shut up at 5 quarts (approx.).

 

As far as replacing them:

My service manual has a procedure for removing the lifters and bleeding them. Seems odd to think they could actually accumulate and retain air.

 

If you guys are saying replace the lifters, it begs the question, could I accomplish the same effect by bleeding all the hydraulic tapets?

 

You guys ever heard of this? Or is it just a C27 thang.

[vr4girl]

i would try it and see what it does. on my vr4 if its low on oil, it ticks loud as hell all the time. if its good on oil or even a little too full, when i start up the car it ticks loud at first then it quiets down after warm up.. but i can still always hear it. i would do it, and if it doesnt work then replace them. you never know, and it cant be too hard.

[James Matteu]

i would try it and see what it does. on my vr4 if its low on oil, it ticks loud as hell all the time. if its good on oil or even a little too full, when i start up the car it ticks loud at first then it quiets down after warm up.. but i can still always hear it.

 

That makes me wonder how much of the noise is rocker on valve and how much it is the hydraulic tapets.

 

You have a twin cam V6, so I can't imagine there is much mystery to any tapping you may have.

 

I would rather leave the valves where they are and simply continue to add a little extra oil given the there are quite a few TSBs and websites describing the unecessarily frequent valve adjustment schedule distributed by Honda with regard to their C and J series V6s. In summary, the valves are better off a little loose/noisey, versus tight and potentially damaged.

 

Thanks for the imput, perhaps in 6-7 years I will pull the heads and rebuild them while their off the car, so I can take my time at my tool bench.

[vr4girl]

im anal about every sound my car makes.. lol so yeah. thats how i started learning.. taking things apart to find where it ended up lol.. boy did that teach me some lessons. but good luck with it, i hope it all turns out well for you.

[James Matteu]

Solved my ticking. The motor mount was bad and kept the oil pan tilted which kept the tappets oil starved since the pick-up was able to cavitate.

 

It stopped after changing the mount, but I've waited to see if it was a fluke and its not.

 

Yay for problems that fix themselves!

 

http://www.hondaforums.com/topic/40983-motor-mount-bracket-plan-b/