Lifter noise?

I had a vue with 3.0 Opel motor. I pulled heads to change bent valves. It has ohc with lifter buckets. No finger style rocker arm/followers. No valve adjustment is possible. I started motor, a bit noisy. Next day it was MUCH quieter. Sold vue. My kids vue has same motor. I did timing belt 5 yrs ago. It does have lifter noise. Unless injectors are super loud which I doubt. Any reason why this motor is noisey? Kid does want to sell it. Time for a newer rig. She is coming over for oil change today. Just wondering since I will be real close to motor today

Yes, sell it. You have a true “orphan car”. Not only does GM no longer sell Opel based cars, but the entire Opel division in Germany has been sold to the French Peugeot/Citroen company, who will not be the slightest bit interested in selling parts in North America.

Maybe, but I’ve never heard of valve clearances that couldn’t be set. With buckets there are a spacers under them. The dealer has a range of thicknesses.

I don’t have much to add but remember when Saturn hit the delete button, I tried a Vue and liked it, bad thing the dealer was not giving a decent discount on a car that was already an orphan.

I can’t imagine how your family ended up with two of those.

My brother has an04 vue with Honda motor he bought new. 200k miles. Never had a problem. I bought 1 in Jan cuz it was $400. No issues except frame rust. Bought another one in feb with bad timing belt job. Bent valves. So I had 2 for a bit. Both are gone. My kid has the only remaining 3.0

HL136_Primary__ra_p

this motor uses lifter buckets with no provision for shims. they use the same lifters on a variety of VW motors as well. i had to refurbish them all (24) on the bent valve vue. i did the oil change on my kids vue and it seems to be quieter than i recall.
the caddy northstar motor uses similar cam buckets. 33mm dia. same style as the gm quad 4 motor. someone here might recall working on the quad 4

Those are hydraulic lifters, the hydraulic lash adjuster is inside.

the cam lobe is on top of the bucket. there is nothing to adjust. are you saying you can adjust valve clearance on a northstar motor? or vue? i had removed the cams on both motors. i have not done that on a quad 4. maybe there is some tech trick on a quad 4?

This is what the Vue manual states;

The camshafts are direct-acting on the valves via hydraulic lifters. The hydraulic lifters adjust automatically to the change in length of the valves at different temperatures. They operate in an oil bath and are supplied with oil via an oil gallery in the cylinder head. The advantages of hydraulic lifters are their quiet operation and their reliability.

Yep, that would explain it.

I would think noisy hydraulic lifters is not a good sign…

;-]

the plungers can get sticky due to carbon/crud buildup. almost all of them would not compress when i took the heads off my vue. a simple cleaning with solvent makes them work again. the oil pressure pumps them up but the oil does not flow thru the plunger. it is a dead end so the oil inside is never flushed out. does the daily use heat cycle cause carbon/crud buildup? i had a thread here a few months ago talking about them. but my kids vue has never been apart. i am not going to replace the lifters as a route to quiet the motor down

If I recall correctly, you actually disassembled the lifters . . . ?

Absolutely, and even more, being in the heads subjects them to higher temperature “heat soak” after shut-down. Here’s where synthetic oil is needed.

Maybe that’s why my truck’s repair manual says 302 engines w/hydraulic lifters do not require valve lash adjustment. Immediately followed by a section on how to adjust them … lol …