Austarion

I really like my Starion, like the engine, love the power it now puts out etc. But I HATE HATE HATE the amount of tappet noise that these engine put out. Years ago I had a Magna with hydraulic tappets. I remember changing the tappets in it and they were just s kind of insert. Could the rocker arms be the same ? or converted to suit. What would be the disadvantage of hydraulic tappets.

Yes, on most occasions hydraulic lifters are quieter than mechanical tappet lifters since there is no lash or free-play.

But they generally fall short of offering optimum performance above 6,000 - 6,500 RPM. And many cheaper designs fall even shorter than this. This poor performance at high RPM is due mainly to the inability of the lifter to "bleed down" the excessive oil pressure, and thus does not allow the valves to seat.

Hydraulic lifters can also be just as noisy as well.. my Pajero has hydraulic lifts and the tappet noise from that is a lot more than the lifters in my Staz. Maybe I should replace them.

They need to be pulled out and re-oiled or whatever they call it. There's air in them. US sites have plenty of info on how to do it.

But will they fit Starion rocker arms or do you replace the entire arm ? Anybody got both they can compare ?

You'd have to replace all the arms. Would they fit though? Would they clear the valve cover? Which ones would you use?

I guess the easiest way would be to get some from pick and payless and see if the general arm is the same ?

There are a few problems I can think of;
-Cam profiles are different.
-Extra oiling holes in the rocker shafts.
-The magnas had a larger oil pump to keep the hydros pumped up.

This is coming from the perspective of fitting hydraulic tappets to a non hydraulic head in the sigma/magna range.

Did any of the 2.4L Sirius motors (Hyundai or Mitsu) have hydraulics??

Cam profiles are different.
-Extra oiling holes in the rocker shafts.

all correct, the main noise that is heard is most likely the rockers and rocker shafts, with 100,000 km's on them these items were the most over looked items on rebuild. This of course is after you have ground the cam and re-radiused the rocker pads..look into new shafts and rockers, you will be suprised at the difference in total engine noise.
Post Note, YES the cam lobe profiles are different solid- Hydraulic, the opening/closing ramp, the rate of lift and duration as well as gross lift is different, as quoted below,it will not run correctly.

my car only has 87,000 ks but you may be right.

I tried a hydraulic set up years ago when I rebuilt my first engine. They will not work correctly with a standard cam. I can't recall exactly why, but a few things were tried before we went back to adjustables. I am sure that the lifter were the same as 2.6 Magna ones.

You should be able to eliminate pretty much all of the noise by adjusting the valve clearances? Just make sure you do it hot... took me a couple of tries, by i had my engine idling very quietly :)

any perf cam I've ever installed ran loose clearances, ~020 or so. Car ran poorly and affected performance if you tried closing it up.
.... or are u saying, even stock tappets (006/010) are noisy ?

pretty common for us 2.6 to exchange stock hyd for adj from minivan.
The 2.6 can run the 2.0 cam, so other stuff 'might' fit.
Perf cam spec different cams for hyd vs mech

133,000Km
1986 stock standard Starion GSR-III 8 valve Sirius JET

Only thing that has been changed on the motor is the cambelt at 96K. I have absolutely no noise besides the exhaust. My Galant taps a bit at high rpm when the oil is low.

Strange to hear of this being a problem.

Pretty standard noise for SOHC mitsy motors.

Just listen to an old rwd lancer or galant next time one drives past.

My Staz doesn't make that noise at all

Idle, or revving, even with the bonnet up and standing next to the motor, there is no tapping noise.