Lifters clacking?

[james yarosz]

When my 2003 Outback LS with the 310 hp carb engine sits for 2-3 weeks I'll start it and the lifters will "clack" for a few seconds.Oil pressure is over 60 and the "clack"goes away in about 5 seconds.Anyone else ever have this problem when their boat sits for a few weeks?

[kaneboats]

I think that's old engines in general. Some recommend lighter oil- but, to me, that means it will run off more easily. Some recommend heavier oil, but it takes longer to pump around when you start so I don't really think that works either. Some recommend different additives. I haven't tried any in a long time and did not like the crap available in the old days. I'm sure there are better ones now. Maybe just changing oil brands will work for you. Has anyone tried the "Slick 50" and stuff like that?

[maxpower220]

It is pretty normal for any engine to have a little valve train noise on start up if the engine has sat for a while. Like the TV commercials say, start is where most of engine damage occurs. If you noise lasts more than 3-7 seconds, you may have a problems.

Slick 50, http://slick50.com/products/AdvFormulaEngineTrt.htm ,

You can see that they have reduced their warranty to 50,000 miles. The product used to have PTFE in it and that is what made it great. PTFE is a type of teflon. This product coats the cylinder and piston wall and filled in any scratches and made a reduced fiction surface. This increase the seal and reduced wear. After a while (years), the product started to flake off, which caused a lot of destruction to the engine. The formula may have changed over the years and it may be a different product.

So, I would not run Slick 50 in any engine that I plan to keep. I do run synthetic oil to help with the start up issues. To keep from having that noise at start up, run your boat everyday. It will like it and so will you.

[james yarosz]

I'm not gonna worry about it since it only last's a few seconds.I use Royal Purple 15w40 synthetic. The boat has 320 hours and still run's perfect and uses no oil.If I wanted to start it every day I'd have to crank the lift down,start it and crank the lift back up,plus take the cover off and put it back on.Way too much work!