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Trevor,

Can you enlighten us as to the conditions that led to lifter noise. Cold after starting, sort of cold @ highway speeds, hot after long highway drive??

If before you tear into an engine you might think of posting here what you experienced and have all of us comment as we've been dealing with this for 50 years. There are some simple solutions that have worked for some, such a overfilling the oil by 1 qt.

Sure thing. Initially the lifter noise was a single lifter that would come and go after the engine warmed up, the speed did not seem to matter. It would occasionally show up while driving 25-30mph or 50mph. I don't go over 50 and usually prefer 40-45, but that's a story for a different time.

But it would come and go while driving. Sometimes it wouldn't even show up while driving, so I thought it was getting better.

Right before it went to the mechanic:

We had been out to Princeton, about a 30 mile round trip all on back roads in early May. Not a peep out of the lifter on our way there and most of the way back.

Then about 1/2 a mile from home it started again. I wasn't worried because we were close to home. But the noise got more pronounced, which in retrospect must have been the addition of 1 or 2 more lifters ticking. Again I wasn't worried because it usually stopped. I parked the car and didn't really think anything of it.

I didn't touch the car for a week or two because we had that awful heat and I like air conditioning.

Then one cool evening I went out to start the car. Not sure if this is an important thing to note or not: but the car takes a significant number of cranks to start when cold - not a concern when it's warm. Anyways, I got the car started and the ticking was almost what I what I would have called a knock. Oil pressure indicated good. I killed the engine right away.

My mechanic received the car on the 1st and he started it up and said it was still the lifter noise only now it was constant instead of intermittent.

Check oil level, fill as needed and run engine. Then try adding an extra quart. Some engines have an oil foaming problem which is remedied with the extra quart. Cheap fix.

Let us know

Oil level is good but I'll add the extra quart and report back.

Ok, an extra quart of oil - over the specified amount - was added and no improvement. Still ticking away. So...move ahead with replacement of the lifters?

Starting to sound like one or more dirty lifters for sure but I'd also be curious what the oil pressure was as measured by an auxiliary mechanical gauge.

The noisy lifters and possibly an oil pressure issue has been going on so long with so many pump "fixes" developed that it kind of gets old. The fact some engines never seemed to have a problem while others seemed to have had them ongoing adds to the confusion.

55s had the problem with the early cam thrust plate allowing too much oil to flow to the timing chain. Hopefully that was corrected early on but with that and the various rocker arm issues and the pump aeration issues all contributing to low oil pressure and noisy lifters, if your car still has early components there could still be issues that new lifters will not fix.

The Olds oil pump conversion with the higher volume output seems to have once and for all corrected the noisy lifters so perhaps that is something to consider as well. Jack Vines makes the pump kit as well as the revised cam plate if the car still has the early one.

This car lapped the Packard Proving Ground oval track at 100mph in about 1975-1980 at the national meet. Lifters were silent as they were on the drive back to NJ. Don't think it had more than 2,000 miles since then.

Easiest thing to try is Jack Vines new modified oil pump, that's where I would go first. Heard only good results with it.

Funny that using a mechanical gauge was mentioned because my mechanic just texted me saying it was consistently between 35 and 45 from an auxiliary gauge. Thank goodness he's happy to put up with my back and forth text questions.

From what I've read people were experiencing pressures well below that when they did the Jack Vines conversion. I think I read 5-10psi.

Not trying to get out of doing the conversion I just want to make sure I'm understanding and exploring this properly.

A design flaw caused the pump shaft hole to weaR TO AN OVAL SAHPE ALLOWING AIR TO BE SUCKED INTO THE PUMP AFTER THE OIL HEATED UP AND GOT THIN. oops!! It is not a pressure problem that causes the ticking, it's trapped air

As Jack Vines points out, there is only one SURE solution. Replace the oil pump with the Olds conversion. End of problem. Why screw around?

Craig