Hey

Im aware of the lifters issue with magna's but just wanted to confirm with some other's if that's what my issue is or if it's something more. It's a loud ticking coming from the rear bank, I took the video below a few minutes after completing an oil change along with some worn engine treatment fluid.

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/73/img0503.mp4

The sound goes away after about a 10-15 minute drive and when driving it has no effect on how the car performs, still feels smooth but it's a pretty embarrassing to have it anyhow. Also ignore the smoke you can see at the end of the video, small amount of oil fell on the headers.

Cheers

Sounds like something is getting hammered to death in there. Could be one of the hydraulic tappets. Either the tappet has failed, or the oil passage to it is blocked. Try some engine flush and put in a thin oil. If it continues, you need to pull the rocker covers to see what is happening. Rocker shafts off and a good look at the tappets. If it has been going on for a while, you may find that the end of one or more valves has been hammered. If the stem ends are really damaged, its a head off job. The tips are case hardened and when this wears through they get really bad quickly. Clean and test the tappets. Replace defective tappets. Clean out the rocker shafts and rocker arms. Did this job on a 3.0L V6, ast 240,000 km. Cost me $1,200 to fix.

Cheers max. Took it for a drive around after that video and once home it was running smooth and beautiful. It's up to 225,000km's so it's gettin on in age so something like this isn't unexpected but still, causes worry.

I would run some engine flush through it even though the oil is fresh, and then change it. If it makes that noise for any length of time when you start it from cold, it will do damage.

Does the ticking go away with oil pressure; rev it and see if it does. If so likely the tappets; the fact that is goes away is likely the tappets.

I just changed mine over; not a hard job a bit fiddly though. I personally just undid the camcaps and kept the belt in tension and lifted the cams a bit; no problems.

Clean the oil passageways while they're out. Im not that familiar with the SOHCs so you might need to remove the cam and therefore reset your timing belt to do so.

Does the ticking go away with oil pressure; rev it and see if it does. If so likely the tappets; the fact that is goes away is likely the tappets.

I just changed mine over; not a hard job a bit fiddly though. I personally just undid the camcaps and kept the belt in tension and lifted the cams a bit; no problems.

Clean the oil passageways while they're out. Im not that familiar with the SOHCs so you might need to remove the cam and therefore reset your timing belt to do so.

The ticking stays when you rev it, in the video I rev it a bit and that's pretty much what it does. It goes away as the engine gets to running temp then it sounds quiet and smooth. It's acting alot better now, after the oil change it's feeling so much better. I think the engine is losing oil by the rocker covers as when I drained it bit less oil than I expected came out which might have been contributing to the severity of the sound.

Till I get enough disposable cash to change the lifters I think Im just gunna go for shorter intervals between oil changes. I was doing them every 5,000km but I did this one pretty much at 5,063km and the tapping was getting pretty bad and the fuel consuption was going into mid 11's when it usually sits at low 10's (lots of short distance drives, not much freewaying) so Im thinking I'll do them every 3,000kms so it almost always has fairly fresh oil in it.

Tappets are around $120 a set out of the US.
You will need a 0.5 mm drill bit or allen key and a bowl of oil to bleed them before you put them in and a bit of Diesel and some carby cleaner to flush out the oil gallerys .
There are a few threads here about how to do it , takes 3-6 hours.
$1200 is around what a dealer would charge if your silly enough to go there.

I'd need a few magna people to help me out. I can some things on cars, but the more intensive stuff just freaks me out.

Don't assume replacing the tappets will fix the problem. When you pull the old tappets check them for loss of surface case hardening, and the valve stem ends for damage. Mine was nowhere as noisy and I had to replace the exhaust valves.

Don't assume replacing the tappets will fix the problem. When you pull the old tappets check them for loss of surface case hardening, and the valve stem ends for damage. Mine was nowhere as noisy and I had to replace the exhaust valves.

...crap