VS V6 ticking all of a sudden

[sydsider66]

Gday fellas.Ive gone through heaps of replies to this ticking issue with my Commo wagon.Cant seem to find an answer.When car is cold the ticking is pretty bad but once its warmed up it completely dissapears and runs as normal.When i changed the rocker cover gaskets 9 months ago there was heaps of gunky stuff around the heads.
Ticking is coming from the left head.Could it be that the oil passages in the lifters are blocked because of the gunk in there? Or would it be a stuffed lifter?The Gregorys gives a brief idea on cleaning and inspecting.
Can someone give us some tips on the removal and cleaning of the gunk around the head and removal of lifters,rods etc if needed to do it?
Ive done most work myself through this site thanks to you fellas with success.Thanks again.

[Clacker]

I know this isn't what you asked but it may help...

I've never taken the cover off to see if my engine has the gunk but two things that have worked for me is lifter additive then a big drive and the brand of oil.

5 years or so I had the ticking sound and as it coincided with the timing of a trip, I added a bottle of "lifter-free" (or something like that) and that cured it. Maybe that wasn't a good idea if there was a lot of gunk in there with the chance of clogging up the filter in the middle of nowhere come to think of it!

The other thing was oil brand. I've been running Nulon high km 20w-50 (which maybe gives me a tick for a few secs or so ) for a few years. I popped into a store that had run out so I bought a standard 20w-50 (shell I think it was). Almost immediately from that change ticking would last longer on start and also occur when I lifted off the accelerator for the 1st few corners.

A few days later I bought the Nulon high km and dumped the oil and things went quiet again.

[pjdm1980]

Sounds like lifters my lifters in my old VP started ticking after sitting round for a couple of days i change the oil with some good quality stuff and two days later it dissapeared. Modern oils have ditergents in them to stop this from happening.
If that doesn't work then I'd suggest that if you've got a gregorys then follow it they usually cover all the points.

[TrikkBen]

Yer mate it will be the lifters. Go to autobahn/supercheap, one of them joint and pick yourself up some Nulon "Lifter Free" and some new oil. Do an oil change and put that in the oil.

Did mine the other month, the ticking has now stopped.

Ben

[sydsider66]

Update on the ticking.Yesterday when it started ticking i put in some engine flush from Nulon then some unknown brand oil from the auto shop and done a filter change.Still did it after doing the flush,oil and filter change.Next morning jumped in and started it and ran perfect as before and was driving around today with no issues.
Must have been a blocked lifter oil passage and cleared out overnight.Hope this helps anyone with their ticking.Thanks for your helpful advice guys.Youre always good for it.
Moral of the story is check that oil passages are clear from whichever lifter is ticking before going for replacements.Run some lifter cleaner/engine flush everytime you do an oil change as a precaution.

[Clacker]

Glad you got it sorted.

Yeah I seem to remember pricing the lifters up many years ago and they were quite expensive.

Well worth trying other methods before replacement.

[chrisdoesitbetter]

i wonder why they always tick from the left hand side (drivers side) it must be a common occurence as i have the same problem.