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Hi guys and girl
i am new on here as i am on my 2nd L series subaru wagon, only problem is THIS ONE makes a terrible ticking noise , its got to be lifters? hasn't it.... its a 1991 EA82 donk
Any input would be much appreciated

Yep, the EA82 was notorious for lifter noises.

Steps to help it:
* Use 20W40 Oil, I have tried almost every other and this is the only oil that stops my ticking.
* There is a lifter addative you can buy from auto stores that you put in when you next change your oil. (some say it works, some don't but I suppose its worth a try).

Once again the first step is to try another oil. I tried thin and think oils and keep going back to 20W40.

Also try re-tensioning timing belts, even consider replacing them if you are unsure of age / km's they have covered. Also look at replacing oil seals in the oil pump. Over time, the seals start to crack, perish and fatigue allowing air bubbles to get into the oil passages which can then result in the hyd lifters not to pump up correctly and as a result TICK TIC TICK TICK TICK TIC

Thanks guys
I will try the oil and additive as its due for fresh oil. As far as timing belts go they should be fine going by the receipts that came with the car.
Is the oil seals job pretty straight forward? im pretty good mechaniclly but is there a black art to this job?

While i am on the subject does the EA82T have this lifter problem also? was thinkin of another engine down the track, but im going for more power\reliability

My brother met some gut from the USA who was service manager or something for Subaru. He noticed my brothers Suby with lifter noise. He said they need the gaps checked but the main cause is the oil pump, not enough oil getting there. They will run for years like this without changeing the pump. He changed the pump and immediately the ticking stopped. He said the reason is they are an alloy pump and they wear out and deliver less oil than when new. Not a drama to change either

do what i did and run cat oil in it. It has stopped and not come back yet that was 6 months ago and not burning any oil .

ok so i put in the 20W40 oil and its helped the problem but not fixed it . It is nice and quiet when its cold but after 5 minutes its back so i recon its definatley airation of the oil due to the oil pump seals\gasket. thats the next step
thanks for all your input

Hehehe... the old lifter tick of the L series. I almost forgot about this! My fix was to drop an EJ in Well worth the effort, lifters are quiet, comes with easy starting, later engineering, better power and torque as well. I love my conversion and would do it to any L series I own later on down the track (If I don't move up to a foz or liberty...)

Also, those lifters are odd things with a mind of their own. One EA82 I had in my L was nice and quiet, the day I went to pick up the first part of my EJ conversion it started to sound like a diesel half way there and didn't stop for exactly two weeks! Odd. I never really tried to fix the problem, even when I replaced the oil pump's internals there was no change.

Cheers

Bennie

I had a 1989 EA82 sedan that had random ticking noises, then a found a better one AT with a cracked engine,
so i swapped the engine and after that the ticking noise has the pattern of sounding only if i rev more than 4000rpm,
but it's same engine that had random ticking... weird. Before it helped alot when i put 5w30 oil in it, now in the other
one it has no effect in the range of 10w40 to 0w30. Maybe it's a bad oil pump, it's worth a check. Still strange it
would change like that since i didn't change the engine block itself.

Go to a pick a part wreckers and pull a set off an old engine. I spent close to $200 before I gave up and replaced them for $20. You might be unlucky and get a noisey set, but you'd be pretty unlucky!

99% of the time it's the oil pump. Drop into your local Subaru parts dept and buy yourself a "Oil Pump Service Kit" for your EA82. Save yourself a few spare hours on the weekend and have fun Once you have the pump out just really go over it and check for wear (small marks are ok)

This also happens on the EA82T so if your looking for a power upgrade, I'd also recommend to go the EJ22 engine out of the Liberty. You'll find them just about the same price as the EA82T and from memory HP is about the same. EJ22 are a lot easier to come by than the EA82T and if you're stuck out in the middle of no-where then you'll find parts much easier.