Lifter Problem? Loud Starting.

[Winston]

So, I went to start my '95 Montero this morning. Cranked it to start, it fired, then stumbled and died. Did this a couple times then it finally started and made a lot of racket, like metal parts banging against each other, then after about 15 seconds it smoothed out and ran fine.

It did something strange like this few years ago. Does this have something to do with the lifters loosing their prime? Or collapsing?

The car sat all weekend except yesterday I started it to back it out of the garage, then two hours later drive it back in. It never got up to temp. Maybe it did not like that.

 

[55Test]

Maybe it got flooded and some gas washed down the cylinder walls and caused the piston to slap a little in the cylinder? That's my only guess.

 

[Gary Allan]

It just drained too long without a start. The odd part about Mitsubishi HLAs is that, sometimes, when they get air in there ..it takes forever to get it to purge. Some say never

Funny that it stalled though. That's something I haven't had happen since I had a carb vehicle.

 

[Winston]

It is funny because it did not sit very long. Like I said the only bad thing I did to it was just run it for 2 minutes without letting it fully warm up.

It stalled twice, then the third time it stumbled for a bit, made the loud racket, then ran fine.

 

[gtx510]

thicker oil can help hydro lifters pump up
what weight oil do yo use?

 

[The_Jeff]

If you have one bum lifter it can bleed down or not depending on what cylinder stopped where and if there's pressure on it. The noise would have the odds of a roulette wheel.

That and you could have fouled a plug with the short start and shutdown, a combination of issues.

Might be time for a shotgun maintenance deal if the mark is close... techron, plugs, wires, oil change, throttle body cleaning. The thick vs thin argument over lifter noise I have read inconclusively as thin oil gets up there faster. There's an "oil noise" thread going around suggesting that moly has a positive effect.