I have a 2001 Blazer that had bad intake gaskets, also a lifter noise on cold starts then it would go away after running about 5 mins. I replaced the intake gaskets they were real bad. Put it back together, started it up and still had the same lifter noise, took it all back apart today and checked all of the lifters for wear, they all looked ok, I pulled the heads off and found coolant in number 1 and 3 cylinders drivers side, passenger side was ok. I also noticed the pass. side roker arm area was alot cleaner than the drivers. Do you think the lifter noise was comming from a blown head gasket or do I have other problems.

 

I had a lifter noise that lasted about 6 months, it was coming from the #4 cylinder. After winding it up one day the noise became excessive so I pulled it all apart, the engine seemed to run good still at that time, just sounded bad. What I found once I pulled it apart was a collapsed lifter, it stopped pumping oil up the push rod to lube the valve train causing the ticking. Also when the lifters collaps, the lifter will bottom out because there is no oil getting trapped in the lifter when it's trying to open the valve acting as a cushion, putting a lot of impact stress on the roller against the cam, which will slowly disintegrate the roller and ware out the cam lobe.

Because you have already determined that the rollers look ok, we can assume that there is no damage to the cam and that the lifter might only be starting to fail. The engine may only tick when it's cold because the oil leaks out of the lifter when the engine is off, then takes a minute for it to prime full of oil again when the engine is started.

The first, less expensive thing you might consider would be to do an engine clean out, there might be some slugg preventing full oil flow to the lifter valley. I read in another thread of a good cleaning cocktail to use with his instuctions to follow. If that dosn't work then maybe consider changing the lifters, after all you already know how to do the job now that you have stripped the engine down already. The cost of new Hydr roller lifters is about $150.

As for coolent in the #1 and 3 cylinders, the bad intake gasket is most likly the cause of that, the only other way for coolent to get in there is through the head gasket which would cause you other more odvious problems. GM intake gaskets are notorious for leaking. Because of pitting of the cast, it is recomended to apply gasket sealent to the gasket around the the coolent ports regardless of the gasket type.

 

You are right I do know how to take it apart, it is my second time, (sucks). I am going to clean all the oil passages out, change all the lifters since I have it apart already, and new head gaskets of course and see what happens. When I am done with all this work and the motor still ticks, it better be a bomb because I will blow it up. LOL

 

Update got all the work done and the truck runs great, no more ticking. Thanks everyone for the help.

 

So what was the issue exactly. I had the same issue on a Jimmy before?