HELP...Olds Cutlass w/ 3.1L making "noisy lifter" sound...

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Will 22 years ago

Hey,

Got a problem with my 3.1L 1998 Cutlass. When cranked stone cold makes a noisy lifter sound. The sound remains forever after the initial stone cold crank. Though after shutting it down AFTER the engine has been warmed to operating tempertures and then allowed to sit for more than ten minutes and then re-cranked the sound is gone completely.

My first guess is that their is a faulty lifter with some crap in the oiling hole and won't fill when oil is stone cold. For some strange reason the lifter never completely fills after the oil is very warm after the initial stone cold crank. Though when the engine is allowed to sit for awhile with hot oil in the engine it fills up just fine. What is the experts take? Please help.

Also, I've already pulled the manifolds and valve covers off. I need help in identifing the "bad" lifter. I know, I know...should have pulled only the covers off and fired up the engine and used a stethiscope to isolate the lifter, but I couldn't get both covers off with out taking everthing off the top of the motor...so a little late for that. HELP!

Stu

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noname 22 years ago

Piston slap, Piston slap, Piston slap

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Will 22 years ago

Problem with that idea is that the engine still ticks long after it is warm and the piston should have long ago expanded into place. It started making that sound abruptly too. Not like it grew over time. One second it wasn't making any noise. Next second it was making noise. Opinions/advice greatly appreciated.

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Al Haunts 22 years ago

Don't be too quick to jump on the 'piston slap' bandwagon. IIRC this problem began to get serious with late 1999 model 3.1's. He's got a

1998 so maybe some other cause??

Regards, Al.

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Brad Clarke 22 years ago

The latest piston slap problem started in 1999, but I've heard others say it started as early as 1995.

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shiden_kai 22 years ago

"Al Haunts" wrote

There are bulletins referring to piston "noise" that address vehicles as far back as 94 when it comes to the 3100/3400 engines. Back then, they deemed the noise to be coming from the piston pin, and now it's become a piston "slap" issue. The fix for the 94-99 was replacing the piston and pin assembly due to "excessive" clearance between the piston and pin, and the fix for the 2000 and up was a changeup piston design with 'polymer' coated pistons.

Ian

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Brad Clarke 22 years ago

No it wasn't a recall., just an all too common problem with the

1999-2002 (2003?) 3.1L.

If your vehicle is under warranty, and the slapping lasts for more than

4 1/2 minutes, you'll get new pistons or possibly a new engine, depending on how much damage has been done.

If it's out of warranty and you decide to get the work done, you get a big bill :)

Brad

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tony burchard 13 years ago

responding to

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tony burchard wrote:> stuartjordan wrote:>

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Ashton Crusher 13 years ago

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Paul in Houston TX 13 years ago

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> , tony burchard wrote:>>> stuartjordan wrote: Will posted on September 10, 2003, 1:21 pm rate this thread

Hopefully it's fixed by now. :)

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Ashton Crusher 13 years ago

formatting link

>> , tony burchard wrote:>>>> stuartjordan wrote:>

These groups are so dead you have to take what you can get :-)

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gosinn 13 years ago

Den s=F6ndagen den 9:e december 2012 kl. 01:36:21 UTC skrev Ashton Crusher:

Well.....

These groups are mostly discussing dead issues and dead companies that are = more or less living a zombie existance.

It is probably for a hope of seeing some revival that we do continue to loo= k in once in a while.

I would love to see some real change into good technology and real progress= happening.

We are still mostly seeing more of same old same old and mostly related to = inferior management and stupid corrupt whatever....

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HELP...Olds Cutlass w/ 3.1L making "noisy lifter" sound...

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