Afternoon update:

After my last post, I decided "what do I have to lose" so did another oil change to Mobil semi-synth ... guess what? The lifter noise went away again, except for a minute or two after startup.

Well I'll be dammed . I said the oil wasn't the cause of the tapping because before the head gasket I tried successive oil changes to no avail. But those damn lifters sure do seem to be sensitive to oil quality.

BTW, the dealer checked all my lifters last November and said they passed, and my compression was good. 360,000 kilometers and still humming like a 12-string! I wish my gasser compression checker would screw in there so I could check it myself.

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Thx/Reno
An American in France
88 300TD 5spd Sportline (lowered factory susp) - totalled by a flying deer
89 Range Rover V8 - the 4wd beast
02 Toyota minivan
05 Peugeot Partner 4x4 Dangel
88 International Harvestor 633SA
--Gone but not forgotten:
1970 250/8 C (sold to buy 450 SLC)
1972 450 SLC (sold after battling wiring harness problems too long)
1971 300 SEL 6.3 (sold after destroying two *very* expensive rear LS diffs)
1986 560 SEL (now my little brother's pride and joy)

Sweet! Next change, maybe go for the full-synth Mobil-1 (either 15W-50 'red cap', or the new 5W-40 'yellow cap' SUV formula). You can extend your drain intervals to offset the higher cost... usually up to 7500mi is safe without analysis. (I change at 10k even though the analysis says I can go longer... I figure 2 years is long enough!)

By golly Dave, you orta start your own repair advice column in the newspapers! (anybody still read newspapers?)

I took your advice and ordered up them two little boogers at my local dealer. It took them several days to get them, indicating to my demented mind that few French mechanics, if any, replace the suckers.

When I started installing them, I was sure my dykes had slipped off the rubber and I was scoring the aluminum shaft. Such was the sound my dykes made. No, I'm not talking about Ellen Degenerate. The pesky little rubber guys were so hard and brittle that my diagonal side cutting pliars (aka dykes) could not bite them without chipping little bits off of the former rubber. They were, as John Cleese would say, ex-rubber O-rings. They were as hard as Hitlery Clinton's will. They broke off into several pieces rather than bend.

And now? My oil pressure comes up WAY faster on cold start, and warm start. It remains to be seen if the intermittent tapping stays gone longer.

__________________
Thx/Reno
An American in France
88 300TD 5spd Sportline (lowered factory susp) - totalled by a flying deer
89 Range Rover V8 - the 4wd beast
02 Toyota minivan
05 Peugeot Partner 4x4 Dangel
88 International Harvestor 633SA
--Gone but not forgotten:
1970 250/8 C (sold to buy 450 SLC)
1972 450 SLC (sold after battling wiring harness problems too long)
1971 300 SEL 6.3 (sold after destroying two *very* expensive rear LS diffs)
1986 560 SEL (now my little brother's pride and joy)

Awesome! Glad to hear that helped...

There is a known fault with hydraulic lifters found in OM601, 602 and 603 engines. There are several supersessions of part number of these lifters.

to check your lifters (as per MB service info 21 Aug 1989)
1) Get engine to operating temp
2) check oil level (don't overfill)
3) remove cylinder head cover
4) check valve tappet; start with cylinder which is at ignition TDC

to check, press lightly on the valve clearence compensator (hydraulic lifter) with a drift and check clearence. replace lifter when clearence is greater than 0.4mm between lifter and camshaft.

I checked the lifters in my OM602 and found 4 out of 10 were faulty. I replaced all of them since i had the original part fitted from 1987 so the others would've failed eventually and I don't like revisting problems (and I got genuine MB lifters at cost price through work )

Let me get this straight. I can check my lifters with just a drift and ordinary clearance measurement tools?

This is good news. My manual says I need a Mercedes tool in order to check the lifters.

__________________
Thx/Reno
An American in France
88 300TD 5spd Sportline (lowered factory susp) - totalled by a flying deer
89 Range Rover V8 - the 4wd beast
02 Toyota minivan
05 Peugeot Partner 4x4 Dangel
88 International Harvestor 633SA
--Gone but not forgotten:
1970 250/8 C (sold to buy 450 SLC)
1972 450 SLC (sold after battling wiring harness problems too long)
1971 300 SEL 6.3 (sold after destroying two *very* expensive rear LS diffs)
1986 560 SEL (now my little brother's pride and joy)

What manual said that? You don't need any special tools according to the information in the OM602/603 engine manual... what AusMBtech posted is a summary of the procedure I know of. It's usually obvious, either the lifter is rock solid and doesn't budge, or it squishes down pretty easy. I had five bad of 12, and I also replaced all of them since I was changing the cylinder head at the time!

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It's a French manual kind of like our Haynes, Chilton's, or Clymer. It's called Revue Technique Automobile.

Because it's French, I should have been leery that it might be wrong. The French are not big on facts, emotion being preeminent.

__________________
Thx/Reno
An American in France
88 300TD 5spd Sportline (lowered factory susp) - totalled by a flying deer
89 Range Rover V8 - the 4wd beast
02 Toyota minivan
05 Peugeot Partner 4x4 Dangel
88 International Harvestor 633SA
--Gone but not forgotten:
1970 250/8 C (sold to buy 450 SLC)
1972 450 SLC (sold after battling wiring harness problems too long)
1971 300 SEL 6.3 (sold after destroying two *very* expensive rear LS diffs)
1986 560 SEL (now my little brother's pride and joy)

"Because it's French, I should have been leery that it might be wrong. The French are not big on facts, emotion being preeminent" along those lines,
I believe it was Charles deGaulle that when asked why they (the French people) could not agree on some subject, said "how do you govern a country that has over 400 cheeses?"
re: OM603 lifters. They are tested by pressing on them individually with no special tools required (maybe the French have their own methods that need some tools for beaucratic resons, LOL!)

I changed all of the lifters on the engine in my '87 300D turbo with 225K miles on it when I had the leaking head gasket changed and the lifter noise went away.
BTW, if I start the engine cold without letting the glow plugs go thru the warm-up time period I hear a little nailing, a rattling sound not like lifter noise.
I slowly count to five after the GP lamp goes out and it starts quiet.
Dieseldiehard

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'95 E320 Wagon my favorite road car. '99 E300D wolf in sheeps body, '87 300D Sportline suspension, '79 300TD w/ 617.952 engine at 367,750 and counting!

I've noticed mine is happier if I wait 5 seconds after the glow light as well. The colder it is outside, the longer you wait - near freezing wait 15-20 seconds longer and it helps a LOT. With some creative wiring, a relay, and the 50C temp switch next to the thermostat housing you can make a home-made afterglow that keeps the plugs on after starting when engine temp is below 50C.

The proper solution is to convert to the 1990-up afterglow relay, extra coolant temp sensor, and afterglow plugs... but that would cost ~$250, the above "50C mod" is about five bucks for a relay and some wire.