I know this engine is notorious for noisy cam followers. There have been several redesigns according to Dr. Booth. I thought my car shared that problem but now I'm not so sure.

The car--1984 190D with 143k miles. Has had head gasket, timing chain replacement in past.

On first start the car has classic metal rap/tap that increases in frequency with increasing RPM becoming indistinct beyond 2000 rpm. When the engine is at operating temp, the tapping is gone at idle and only is apparent from 1500 or so to 2000. Why would it go away at lower idle? Is the lifter partially filling with oil? I went to Mobil 1 and I THINK it is quieter in the aforementioned rpm range when it reaches operating temp. Wondering if anybody thinks this could be something else besides a noisy lifter? (injector, timing chain)

thanks

Kevin
1979 240D manual
1984 190D manual

Hey Kevin,

I know you probably hate to see my name pop up again, but I was the guy that posted a while back about having test drove your car when it was on e-bay.

I do remember that the car needed lifters. They are not hard or expensive to replace and since my best guess would be that your car has around 200k+ on it (regardless of the odometer) it is that time. All the 601 + 602 engines I've encountered seem to need them in the 200-250K range.

Not trying to be a bummer, just offering advice....

Happy Motoring,
Klaus

__________________
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'68 Mustang fastback
'55 T-bird
‘63 Studebaker Hawk

Thanks for your reply Klaus. I was questioning myself but this is the affirmation I needed that the lifters need to be replaced. This car likely has a very checkered past, but I can't help but really like it and so I'm going to replace the lifters and redo the interior.

Regards,


Kevin
1979 240D
1984 190D manual

I had an experiance with very noisy lifters on my 87 300D. Just like all OM60X engines they seem to have the noisy lifter problem.

They say that synthetic oil should stop them ticking but i already had ELF 5w40 synthetic in there and the ticking was still present.

The solution to the ticking was a oil change with mobil 1 5w40 and a bottle of rislone. When i changed out the oil and put in the mobil 1 and rislone i had let the engine idle for 10mins.

And the ticking was gone! The ticking only returns at cold start-ups but quiets down once the oil is moving around in the engine as the engine warms up.
Try adding rislone as you have already put in some mobil 1, trust me it works!

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Previous
2004 E55 AMG
2002 C32 AMG (#2)
1995 E300
1978 300D
1987 300D
2002 C32 AMG(blown motor :[
1981 300SD
1983 300SD
1987 300SDL
2002 Jetta TDI
1996 S420
1995 S500
1993 190E 2.6
1992 190E 2.3
1985 190E 2.3 5-Speed

Thanks, greasy. I tried rislone and mobil 1 's new synthetic for diesels without any improvement. I think I just need to go ahead and change out the lifters. PLanning to begin the procedure review and decide if I'm up to doing this. Something about removing the cam and messing up the timing or dropping the timing chain is kind of holding me back but it bears more review of the procedure ( if I can find it, hopefully my service manual cd has the procedure for cam removal).

Kevin
1979 240D manual
1984 190D manual