My car's been sitting awhile and when I fired it up this weekend it had the most hellacious ticking coming from the lifters(I think). I let the car idle for about 5 minutes and then drove around the block a few times(the car's not registered and a neighbor calls the sheriff on me every time so I have to make it quick!) and the tick did get quieter but didn't go away. I changed the oil and filter and fired it back up and still it ticked. Sunday it was quiet again after letting it warm up but this morning it was ticking a little. I know 50w is thick oil and takes awhile to get to the lifters but should I be concerned? Are lifters supposed to lose pressure, and do they normally take that long to quiet down?

Also I had a bit of sludge on the drain plug, certainly more than I expected. The motor is fresh and had 2 weekends on the oil. This is the first oil change since the rebuild even though it had 2 weekends, I didn't push hard at all those races even short shifting down the straights to fifth gear. It did get hot the first weekend because my airdam and radiator shrouding was damaged. Should I also be concerned about this? The oil was still very clean just the drain plug was gunky.

It is common for lifters to drain down. Not ideal, but short of changing them all there is not much to do. It tends to be more prevalant in colder temps.

As for the motor you are fine. When I ran my fresh motor I broke it like this.


Built up and ran for mimial time to ensure no leaks and to cooling issues. Less than 10 mintues.

At the track ran for 1 session using at first part throttle accel and decel in gear using the entire rev range. The idea is to get back pressure from engine braking to help seat the rings. As I went on used more and more thottle so by end the of 20 min I was going full bore normal lap pace.

Then I changed the oil to clear out any debris. Then I just ran the motor as normal.

Seems to be fine. No oil smoke, No oil consuption and good power. I did have some lifter tick back in January, but it went away once warmed up. It did take time to warm it up and 2-3 very gentle laps got it working fine.

After my rebuild it sounded great, usual breakin, changed oil, couple more race weekends no problems then out of the blue the lifters made a lot of noise and had me worried. I just kept running it and it finally went away by the end of the weekend of racing. Hasn't come back.
Kind of had the same thing with the balance shaft belt. I adjusted till it was a good as I could get it, still made noise and finally quite after a while.

Ron,
You shouldn't push the engine above 4500rpm for the first 4 races after the ticking started. Practice and Qual sessions should be safe though.

I really think it is the ultra thick oil that Art put into your engine after the rebuild. That oil is made for an M5 not 944. My car had that clicking problem but I changed the oil out to Pennzoil full synthetic 20w-50 and there is no clicking at all.