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Lifter noise

Hpiracr28

New member
I had a 98 old cutlass with the 3.1 which had some lifter noise. My dad's 06 grand prix 3.8 has some lifter noise under hard acceleration. I believe my 03 grand prix 3.1 has some lifter noise on startup as well. If this is what is making the knocking, is there any oil additive to solve the knock? Motor honey? Lucas oil additive?
 


You can try some oil additive to clean the lifters or use transmission fluid, either will work.

It's hard to say if that will do the trick though, some motor will just always be noisy untill you replace them. GM lifter clatter is very common and most cars will run just fine with it.
 
I have read a lot about this noise your speaking of. Most cars will make this sound their whole life. It's not damaging anything. I replaced the lifters on my friends car and the noise was gone, but it only lasted a few months. I know it's annoying and people think your car is running like ****, but it's really not worth the work cause the noise will come back.
 
I'm going the same route as ffdp. I would replace a quart of oil with trans fluid...run it a few hundred miles, change the oil.
 


Transmission fluid has cleaners that regular oil does not, some of those cleaner are in some the highest end oils now like amsoil or better. Some people say it does nothing but many of those people have not tried it and follow what other people say about it not working.

I've done it many times over will good results, it does not harm anything while doing this. Trans fluid is the super cheap way to try and clean out a motor by cutting down the sludge.
 
It's not a constant knock, and very faint at this point. Thanks for the pointers though. When it gets bad enough, I'll try the mentioned remedies. I'd prefer not to tear apart the top half and replace lifters. Did that on my olds along with other major engine repairs... accidentally swapped intake and exhaust push rod...bad news lol
 
My wife's 2000 GP w/ the 3.1 has had lifter noise for thousands of miles. It's most noticeable on a cold start.

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3100 60* GM engine is known for lifter tick cold... My old GP with 3100 that my son drives now has 270k and lifter tick for 240k, lol
 
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