BigBirdLS1

Guys I need a little reassurance here. My car in sig is NOT a daily driver for me. It sits in a garage most of the time. This morning I'm feeling froggy so I hop in my SS to drive to work. The vehicle has not been touched/cranked for right around a month. I crank it up and it fires up on the first lick but I hear a god-awful tap tap tap noise. Before I even realize what it is the noise quiets down substantially so I just drive her real easy on into work.

I get to worrying about it and realize that the tapping was probably a dry lifter and it quieted down once oil got back to it. I might be getting paranoid but I swear the car was more noisy than it's ever been on my drive in to work.

My question is how likely is it that I messed something up and what/where should I be looking. The lifters are the factory originals 87xxx miles.

TwitchZ28

iTrader: (3)

I think you are most likely fine man. LS1's are bad about lifter knock. I know if I drive every day or so it has almost no knock. But if it sits a while the knock is quite a bit louder but as with any other case of lifter knock it doesn't last.

udienow

iTrader: (18)

Well check your oil make sure its in line, but what you are talking about is piston slap. It is common to hear this in the first few mins when you first start you car... unfortunately LS1's do that.

KevinR

Exactly, and it has nothing to do with your lifters. If it went away after a few minutes, then you're fine.

BigBirdLS1

Guys this is definitely not piston slap...it was waaayyyy to loud to be piston slap. This car has not had piston slap from day 1 of me owning it so I definitely don't think it would start now. My car has been sitting for months at a time for 3 yrs now and this is the first time it has EVER made this noise. The noise went away in a matter of seconds not in a few min. once it got to operating temp like piston slap does...I'm stumped at this point.

NC98Z

iTrader: (1)

Your right in thinking that you lifters leaked down after a month of the garage. When you cranked it the noise you heard were your lifters raising hell until the pumped up again. But there is only way I know to keep it from happing again. Accusump. Its a self contained oil reserve that keeps oil under pressure. So when you go to fire up your car it has oil pressure before you crank it. Better yet make it a habit to fire it up once a week so the lifters don't leak down.

JohnS Z28

iTrader: (1)

...this may sound stupid as hell, but maybe my car is not the only one that does it.
when in the shade/garage or at night, and my parking brake is all the way down, the lights flicker for some unknown reason, this makes a nice tapping sound inside the car, this ONLY happens at night or when theres a lack of sunlight..maybe you pulled out of your garage into the light and it stopped?

BigBirdLS1

So guys I got an update I went outside on my lunch break and fired her up and there was ZERO noise at all. I heard a little hummm of a sewing machine but it's 100% normal for a cammed car. I'm not worried about it now just gotta wonder after 3yrs of sitting for months at a time with no issue why this morning did that all change.

LS1_Sean

iTrader: (1)

My car did the same thing after string for the whole winter. All the oil drained down into the oil pan. If you would of watched the oil pressure gague when u started it up it would of been low for a sec. The noise was most likely from the lifters. Next time hold the gas pedal all the way to the floor (shuts off the injectors off) and crank it a few times to bring the oil pressure up.