I hope the following helps another MX5 owner with Noisy engine / Tappets !!!
My MK1 1.8 started to rattle & display the sign’s of noisy tappets , so I asked for some guidance on here and did a little research on line … quite a few people spoke well ( some did not ) of Wynns Hydraulic Valve Lifter Treatment …£8.99 from Halfords , just go for a 10 mile drive park up , pour in , then drive home again …!!!
It’s worked like a dream , I went for a spin both last night & tonight , the engine is now both quiet & very smooth . - I’m very impressed , I plan to change the oil & filter & at the weekend for good measure , again using a high quality oil.
I don’t tend to have much belief in magic potions and it may well not work for every one , but I’m amazed at how well it appears to have worked & would recommend for £8.99 that it’s worth a try for your first port of call if you have similar problems / or at least do a little on line research to check it out !
When you change the oil by all means use a good quality oil as you have suggested. However in my experience these MK1 engines do not like the latest fully synthetic oils. I find that this can make the tappets very noisy. I changed the oil recently on a Club members car which had noisy tappets - especially on first start up. I used a 10W40 semi synthetic oil and it has transformed the engine. It would be interesting to hear what others have found.
Good point Dave , but I assume maybe incorrectly that the product has broken down the gunk that has caused the valves to stick…as such some residue may still be in the system , thus best drain and clear out completely … I’m just guessing this is the best course of action and reason why ?
Thanks Heli5 , as you say I wonder what others think about the way forward re grade / spec of oil -
May be an old question , but would be great to have an update / general view -
Here is a pretty rubbish drawing of how these things work
Basically there is a small spring loaded piston assembly inside the cap which the cam shafts act on. The idea is that the spring inside this piston assembly will press the piston out to rest on top of the valve stem.
The whole assembly is supplied with oil via a gallery and aligned hole in the cap.
When the camshaft presses down on the cap the oil supply hole is misaligned and so the oil then becomes trapped inside the cap and piston assembly, hydraulically locking it and so the valve is opened.
The purpose of all of this is that it removes any need to adjust valve clearances as it becomes automatic. However you get old oil deposits around the outer diameter of the small piston which tends to gum up the free movement of this by the little spring and result in clearances and “rattle”
Engine cleaner can remove this, however half a cup of decent quality diesel in your oil and let the car idle for 15 minutes before changing the oil will do just as good a job.
You can also take the caps to bits if you are doing a water pump, they are quite easy, obviously you have to remove the camshfts to do this, but they are quite simple and robust.
Thin oils drain readily overnight, so fully synth and certainly 0W oils as well as also burning readily and so aiding oil consumption, and therefore require more “pumping up” of the caps in operation before they hydraulically lock, as well as draining away more readily from places you would like oil to remain.
Tappet noise is usually caused by the tappets not pressuring correctly using a slightly thicker oil will normally do the trick the more time consuming method is to remove the followers and clean them in paraffin if you do though leave them submerged in engine oil for a while after cleaning before refitting them that way they have oil in them before you attempt to start it I had to do this on my old mk3 escort 1.3 with a cvh engine
I phaffed around with all sorts of t’ternet opinions for years with my Mk1 1840cc, which I’ve had for 9 years now albeit with a new-ish mill from AKAutomotive.
Both engines responded well to simply doing 4k oil changes with GTX 10-40 which I’ve used in every car I’ve run over 40 years…from a Mini to a Courteney Turbo’d Opel Monza.
Not wanting to start an oil debate, but Castrol’s old school stuff is pretty much my default oil.
Opinions differ greatly, but in my own opinion, keep your oil fresh, and let these modern oils do their job.
Still get a wee bit of start-up lash every now and then for a few seconds but I just ignore it.
Tried Magnatec once…never again.
For some odd reason it seems…so I was informed…to clog the narrow oilways.
Always use a Mazda filter though.
Here’s a thing?
Recently, in error, our local spanner man changed out my wife’s 02 Sport’s oil with Mobil1.
This engine is tight & pristine…barely run in at 83,000 miles…and the mill loves it.
I’m not prone to placebo effets, but I’m certain the mpg has improved marginally, and it seems rev more quietly if not eagerly.
Mind you…it might be placebo due to the recent SS exhaust!
Give them a wipe and then reassemble. You can’t really go wrong; the main danger is dropping bits on the floor. Ensure everything is clean, you can imagine what a bit of grit would do. Put the spring on the little perch, then put the piston over the top and slide together. Then put the piston back into the cap. It is better to hold the cap with the opening downwards so that the spring does not fall into the cap and gently push back together. You will feel when the “O” ring seats and now you should be able to press the piston down in the cap and feel it spring back.
It is worth priming them with oil first by holding them i a cup of clean oil and pressing the piston until air bubbles stop coming out.
If you look at Nick’s post, he advises of the parts gumming up which causes the problem.
The Wynnes solution if you look at the chemical composition on the safety data sheet for the product, advises certain main active chemicals and at least two of these are solvents, that gets back to Nick’s post that they need to get into the tappets and dissolve the gum.
The trick with that solvent is to make sure it only dissolves those problem sticky areas and does not cause damage elsewhere and that is why you pay for the small bottle of clever liquid.
If you look at the similar data sheet for the Wynnes engine flush, it uses different but not unrelated chemicals in it’s make up and appears to have more harmful ingredients than the valve lifter product.
Once the product has done it’s job and I assume you may want to leave it in for a while to get the tappets clean, it would seem if it has done it’s job, then you would maybe want to change the oil and filter and all things being equal, you would go back to your normal oil.
For info
New car VW Golf GTI 1989 after three years and 36k miles, if I remember the sump rusted from the outside, changed the sump and some sludge in there and on the bottom end of the engine.
2007 Suzuki Jimny we had from new, after about 5 years or so say 50k miles, sump rusted from outside, it was as clean as a whistle in there when I changed the sump.
Latest oils much better at cleaning.
Mk1 cars from the same timescale as the Golf and would have used similar oils.
Therefore, I reckon that if you do the treatment and it works, then maybe and it is a maybe that modern oil will keep the lifters cleaner in the future.
