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MG MGF Technical - Tappets

VVC 8000miles aprox. Tapping noise when starting from cold. Quiet as oil gets around top of engine. Engine performs well. Can't find any proceedure for replacement of hydraulic followers in the workshop manual. Anyone had any experience of the proceedure? or comments if you think the problem is something else.
Paul

Hi Paul,
see the archive for additional data.
'pinking' should be a useful keyword.

The change is explained IMO in the 'K-Engine Overhaul manual'. Should be IMO availiable at the dealer.
But wait until Rog said something more useful to that noise.

dk
PS I only heard of some tappet changes in former times.
Dieter


Hi Paul,
It is not uncommon for selfadjusting tappets to be somewhat noisy during startup , one or several of the tappets can loose some oil inside and "rattle" quite a lot! This is normally cured within a few seconds - sometimes up to minutes- when thinner freeflowing oil fill up tappets again. Important is to NOT rev engine heavily to "restore " as tapping noise is in fact exessive clearance between cam and tappet / valve.

One possible cause can be wrong viscosity of oil or even too old dirty oil -( knowing You from the Threads I dont think thats the problem!) But sometimes a change for a 5W - oil will make improvements , especially in wintertime with low temperatures. Then of course we have the more normal explanation such as camlobe wear etc. but usually then noise is persistent. Those more freqvently working on K-engines will certainly better this list of possible causes and cures.

Regards, Carl.
Carl

>a change for a 5W

Carl, down from 10W ? or up from 0W ?

Dieter


Hi,
As "Betriebsanleitung" says -" use a wellknown brand of 10W/40 " I would try a 5W /40 instead -
why not syntetic or at least semisyntetic.. But it can as said previous also be something faulty with one or several tappets, but usually it doesnt fix by itself in short time after start up. Some tappets are so sensitive that during engine overhaul they have to be kept in a bucket filled with oil until reinstalled !

Regards, Carl.
Carl

Yep, 5W /40 is OK then for me, I was told so by some other people too, so I'm up to date.
That should not mean that other new oils are not good, but the 5W40 is 'enough' improvement for the MGF (IMO)
Thanks

IMO that 10W/40 in the owners manual relates to the fact that nothing 'better' (newer) was availiable according to the standards of 1994/1995 when the car was introduced.

dk
Dieter

Hi Guys,
Thanks for your commments. The oil I am running on is whatever the Rover dealer put in at the annual service.I dont know about you, but I would prefere to see a "named brand" on the job sheet rather than "bulk terms", could be anything!!
Paul

With oil the recomended lubricants are what should be regarded as a minimum, and have a viscosity range that encompasses that 10/40 range.

Carl has as usual covered the salient points, but I would just add that hydraulic tappets for the 4 cyl Rover engines have a slightly higher than average problem rate than you would find in the trusty old Rover V8 which uses tappets designed and sourced in the US where this type of tappet has a very very long history. There isn't the historical technical experience for the 4 cyl units and so a few niggly problems do occur.

The biggest problem for these tappets comes from dirty oil, where suspended particles that are too small for the filter to trap enter the tappet and eventually restrict the oilflow into and out of it. This leads to problems when overnight oil is able to drain out and leave an air pocket. As you know air is compressable and so when the engine is next run the air compresses and the result is in a much larger than normal gap between the cam lobe and the tappet. (Assuming that the tappet remains in contact with the valve stem tip.)

I have to say that it is the 2 litre Rover tappets that give far more problems than the K series, with K series problems usually associated with engines that have well over 100K miles. The last one I had to try and help was a 135k 214 which responded to the addition of a flushing agent just before the removal of the oil oil. Draining that oil (very thin with this agent in it) whilst stinking hot (Welding gloves on with medical rubber gloves over the top to seal!!!)
draged out much muck.

I then ran the engine with a flushin oil before adding a semi synthetic 10/40. At 150k miles the car was exchanged for a newer model and the tappets just occasionally were rattly on first start up and one or two would not shut up for the first 5 to 10 mins normal town driving.

Basically my advice would be to change the oil as I wouldn't expect deposits to be a problem at this mileage. See what happens after an oil change (and filter) and reassess how bad the problem is. If the problem remains at a level where it is just an initial start issue, then clearing after a max of a couple of minutes normal driving, then I would expect the official view will be that this is acceptable.

Be aware that changing the tappets is not a simple one as you have to strip the top parts off the head inc the cams. Be also aware that individual head castings and the machining of tappet gelleries and oil drillings can and does influence this problem. In other words if you were to isolate a regular noisy tappet then renewal may not change the situation.

Rog
Roger Parker

This thread was discussed between 10/01/2000 and 16/01/2000

MG MGF Technical index

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