Valve Ticking at Startup

[Ron]

<FONT face="Comic Sans MS">Many Viper owners seem to mention valve ticking at startup. Fortunately, this is not an issue for me, hot or cold, winter or summer.

I'm curious however, if the ACR oil filter adaptor could be part of the reason for the phenomenon. Given that the ACR adaptor does not have a shuttle valve and thereby allows the oil cooler and lines to drain at shutdown, perhaps the time it takes to refill is sufficient to allow the lifters to take a bit longer to pump up?

To test my theory, how many of you experience ticking at startup and do you have an ACR or a non-ACR with the ACR adaptor?

Thanks</FONT f>

 

[Frank 03SRT]

Ticking, no ACR, no ACR adapter.

 

[C O D Y]

I have some lifter tapping noise at all times. Maybe a little more so on start up, but the car doesn't leak an once of oil and has dynoed well above average. It seems to sound like all the other vipers I have heard.

 

[Joel]

If mine sits for a week or two it may tap for a second or so on starting the motor. I assume this is normal leakage from the hydraulic lifters and does not seem to be a cause for concern.

 

[Tom F&L GoR]

Don't have ACR parts, but do know the oil flow through the engine is awfully quick, and lifters tap longer than that. The filling (and draining) of a lifter are through small ports or tight clearances, so oil pressure at the gauge doesn't quite correlate with oil feeding/filling the lifter body.

Everyone has heard an engine tick on start-up after a long shutdown because the valve spring eventually squeezes the oil out. Can happen in shorter times, too. How short is probably the question.

From a lubrication point of view, it won't matter much. Valve lifter to cam lobe surfaces aren't pressure lubricated, they're splash lubricated. The ticking is the cam lobe to lifter to pushrod to rocker to valve tip clearance, every contact part of which is hardened, (again mostly splashed oil.) These parts will last fine with a few moments of ticking. If it never goes away, then the adjuster in the lifter body is stuck, usually due to varnish buildup that makes it either sticky or no clearance. Irreversible with oil, can only be incentive to change the oil more often next time.

 

[GTS Bruce]

Try a slow,running cool down before shut off.I have not had a problem with the Viper.But I have had a lot of engine noise upon start up on other vehicles especially a 5.9 ram.This only seems to happen when I shut down immediatley after running ******* an expressway.If I slow down and cool down first,then idle for a minute or so in the driveway before shut down there is absolutely no clatter at start up.Slow easy start up and shut down may be the key to long engine life. Bruce

 

[Sean Roe]

When we bought the '94 back in November, it would tick for about 2 seconds at startup. A couple months later, the engine came out for an Arrow rebuild (head gaskets seeping). While at Arrow, the found that the cam bore in the block had become scored. There are no cam bearings in Viper V10's. The cam rides in the block against the aluminum. While the cam may be hardened, the block is not. Arrow had the cam bore re-bored and installed a service cam with larger journals. When that engine went back in the car, I put a pre-luber on it. No more tick, tick, tick at startup. The car had 11,900 miles on it.

P.S.
We all know that there are several engines that have the cam riding against an aluminum journal. However, these are overhead cam engines that don't have as heavy a valve train assembly. The Vipers long valves and generally heavy valvetrain requires more valve spring pressure than small 4 cylinder production OHC engines. The cam is getting pushed into the block harder on the Viper. Heavier valve train, more spring pressure, 20 valve springs and 1 cam.

I highly recommend a pre-luber on a Viper engine, no matter where you get it from.

 

[Marc Lublin]

Vipers tick for a couple of seconds at startup, I thought everyone knew that. New and old, most do it.