What's up guys? Brand new to the forum. Got an 05 suburban z71 with a lifter tap/ ticking issue. It's progressively gotten worse over the years and gonna finally bite the bullet and fix the issue. Just was looking for some tips and pointers and what should I go ahead and replace while I'm in there. Any input would be appreciated.

 

Welcome to the forum. Are you sure it's a lifter and not an exhaust leak?

 

Check and make sure it's not an exhaust manifold leak first. Then once confirmed lifter tick tackle it. What is your oil pressure hot idle? I've installed a oil pump pickup tube o ring in at least 20 different 99-06 5.3s,4.8, 6.0s with success every time. The orings get hard and brittle which causes cavitation in the oil pump.

 

I'm pretty sure it's not an exhaust leak. It's definitely a loud tapping sound coming from the engine. I can even feel the tapping if I put my hand on the engine cover. Feels like it's coming from the front driver side at the very front? Is that cylinder 1?

 

Well idk what my oil pressure is. My oil pressure sensor went out and haven't replaced it so I was gonna also change that out while I was in there. I've never had any issue with it being low before it went out but I did have somewhat of an issue tho. Is the oil pressure supposed to immediately go up to the halfway mark as soon as u turn the truck on or does it have to build pressure and work its way up to the halfway mark? Because I did kind of keep track of how and when the lifter tapping would start and stop and noticed that the tapping would happen if it was a cold start and kept on until it reached the halfway mark more or less. Was I onto something there or was the sensor just slowly going out and just a coincidence?

 

Generally those model engines ran 35-40 hot idle and 60 running down the road. Confirm your oil pressure first and we'll go from there.

 

Gotcha. I'll hook my scanner up to it tomorrow and see if I can get an oil pressure reading on it. Would u happen to have an answer to my question about the oil pressure having to build pressure or just immediately going to the halway mark as soon as it turns on?

 

Oil pressure should show within a couple of seconds. If it takes 8-10 seconds then you got some issues.

 

The notorious 5.3 lifter tick, came across a video where they replaced the o-ring on the pickup tube inside the oil pan for my understanding this gasket was failing and allowing air to be sucked into and cause that noise, I have read where this oring has fixed this lifter noise for numerous 5.3 might not be the case for all but the majority, the rough cold start and misfire I personally dealt with for my 2001 Tahoe four-wheel drive with almost 300,000 miles the problem and solution was the intake gasket leaking sucking air causing the engine light to come on and run rough sometimes almost backfiring and or low idle and stalling on cold starts. Remove the plenum cleaned all the carbon buildup off the inside and replaced all the o-rings and gaskets under the intake that fixed the loud cold start and misfire now if my truck wasn't a four-wheel drive I would change out that oil pick up tube o-ring this weekend but that's going to be for somebody else to do in the time comes hope this helps. The rough cold starts that go away after warm up could be the intake gasket expanding after warm up that's why it goes away initially after startup and running a few minutes that was my issue