G4VSQ
New Member
Hello one and all,
My 1988 260E (148, 000 miles) was serviced about 600 miles ago. Since then (and maybe before) I notice two things:
1) On cold starts, it rattles for about 1 second-I guess this is due to the oil taking time to reach the cyclinder head and then on to pump up the hydraulic tappets. Is this normal? I have heard the sound before, but only on a (eurgh!<img src="http://www.mbclub.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''> Sierra! I have never owned a car with hydraulic tappets before though...
2) After starting, I notice an intermittent tap tap tap from the top end, which certainly sounds like a loose tappet. It goes away after about 1-2 minutes of idling and doesn't reappear at all whilst the engine is hot. It also only appears after the first start up of the day. Now the big question is...SHOULD I do anything about it? (Sleepless nights thinking of worn valve gear, disintegrating tappets, dropped valves, no lubrication of top end, shudder) Or should I just ignore it until it becomes vocal all the time?
I do plan to have a valve stem oil seal job done some time soonish to reduce the amount of breathing that the engine is doing (and hoping/praying that this will cure it) so a check and replace of tappets could be done then as well.
What do you think? Thanks in advance... <img src="http://www.mbclub.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'> <img src="http://www.mbclub.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'> <img src="http://www.mbclub.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'> <img src="http://www.mbclub.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'>
My 1988 260E (148, 000 miles) was serviced about 600 miles ago. Since then (and maybe before) I notice two things:
1) On cold starts, it rattles for about 1 second-I guess this is due to the oil taking time to reach the cyclinder head and then on to pump up the hydraulic tappets. Is this normal? I have heard the sound before, but only on a (eurgh!<img src="http://www.mbclub.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''> Sierra! I have never owned a car with hydraulic tappets before though...
2) After starting, I notice an intermittent tap tap tap from the top end, which certainly sounds like a loose tappet. It goes away after about 1-2 minutes of idling and doesn't reappear at all whilst the engine is hot. It also only appears after the first start up of the day. Now the big question is...SHOULD I do anything about it? (Sleepless nights thinking of worn valve gear, disintegrating tappets, dropped valves, no lubrication of top end, shudder) Or should I just ignore it until it becomes vocal all the time?
I do plan to have a valve stem oil seal job done some time soonish to reduce the amount of breathing that the engine is doing (and hoping/praying that this will cure it) so a check and replace of tappets could be done then as well.
What do you think? Thanks in advance... <img src="http://www.mbclub.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'> <img src="http://www.mbclub.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'> <img src="http://www.mbclub.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'> <img src="http://www.mbclub.co.uk/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'>