HLA repair time

[Tim]

My '89 Auto has been making a rattling noise from the head ever since I bought it. When starting the car on a cold day it is a loud clicking. Both subside after the engine warms up.

After searching around here, it seems like I might have a clogged/bad HLA or two somewhere. The previous owner frequently missed oil changes, and looking under the oil cap I see everything has a nasty, gritty black coating.

I assume the lack of oil changes caused the problem with HLAs, so I plan to take them out for inspection/cleaning/replacing.

Before I dive into this repair, I have a few questions.

1). Having never worked on a Festiva with HLAs, what am I getting into? Is this a difficult job? None of the threads I read were very specific about how to get the HLAs in and out. There was a reference to some sort of metal bar that holds them in but that's all I could find.

2). I plan to soak the HLAs in carb cleaner overnight to bust crud up and clean them out. Before reinstalling them, how can I determine which ones are bad or have leaky seals? I don't want to take the valve cover off twice.

3).Will driving the car with the HLAs in their current state harm the engine or cause excessive wear? I plan to take care of this problem soon, but I have no clue how long the HLAs have been acting up.

4). While I have the valve cover gasket off, would it be time well spent scraping varnish/crud off of the head?



Thanks!

Tim

[smokin fastiva]

whats an HLA? and mine makes that clicking noise sometimes. thats usually a sign i need to add a little oil haha

[The_Collector]

Click here to find out what an HLA is

[blkfordsedan]

It is fairly easy. You'll know which ones are weak as soon as you take the valve cover off. You can push down on the valve end of each rocker arm with your fingers. If they are "spongy" or collapsed completely then they are bad/plugged. Any good ones will feel relatively firm. You can soak them all you want, but they have a small check ball in them so I doubt that will do any good. They can be cleaned but IMO, the best thing to do is replace them all with new ones. If the engine has a lot of sludge build-up it may not be a bad idea to try to clean the engine first through a series of frequent oil changes to minimize the possibility of plugging up the new ones after only a few thousand miles.

Some machine shops put the new HLA's in a vise and compress them completely first so they will pump up to the proper lash adjustment on initial start-up. The theory is that if they are over-pumped they can hold the valves open and will never bleed down to the proper lash on their own. I have never had a problem with this before, so it may just be a fear of bent valves in other brands (i.e. Chryslers that are an interference valve design) that causes them to do this. I had the head surfaced on my 93L this winter and let the machine shop re-assemble the valvetrain. I gave them new HLA's to install but when they told me of this vice technique I was a little apprehensive. I decided to trust them, but I now get the clatter for a few seconds every morning and I never did before. May just be coincidence.

The replacement is simple but I would get a repair manual to follow for the proper bolt sequence and procedures for rocker arm shaft removal / replacement and torque specs. The threads in the aluminum head can strip out easily if your not paying attention. I found that zip-ties work good for keeping the shaft springs compressed and rocker arms in place during assembly. Others here will have some other tips, but the best thing if you've never done it before is to get a good repair manual and follow the directions.

[FestYboy]

if you have an '89, you MAY find that you have mechanical adjusters (set screw). i did read that it is an auto, but i'm not certain that ALL efi engines had HLAs ('89 was a wierd year).

[freshtiva]

89 was a weird year !! I bought some new HLAs for about $3 a piece, cant remember where now. I switched some used one and corrected my problem before the new ones arrived.

[jglutz]

If you decide to take the rocker asembly out...make sure all of the parts go together back in the same place. Very Important!

A couple of years ago I developed a valve tick. I took the rocker assembly apart and on one of the roccker bores I found I picked up a burr on the oil port. I picked it out and stoned it away. All better.

[smokin fastiva]

Click here to find out what an HLA is

very nice

[Tim]

Just an update...

I pulled some HLAs out of a wrecked, low miles 323 yesterday. It was surprisingly easy to do - 4 bolts and the whole rocker arm assembly lifts out, and then you just grab the HLAs with some Channelocks and they pop right out.

The replacement HLAs are rock hard and the head was a nice golden brown, so I can assume that they are good? Also do they need to be primed prior to installation?

If I read blkfordsedan's post correctly, I can tell which HLAs are bad just by checking for play in the rocker arms?

I plan to tear into the engine this week some time, now that the weather is nice!


Thanks!

-Tim

[FestYboy]

soak them in some oil for a while first, or if you have it, carb clean and then oil.

[ejp2fast]

also when installing the new HLA's, the orange seal can tear easy, so be careful with that.

[Tim]

So I'm a little confused.

I tore into the engine today, and inspected the HLAs. They seem fine to me. None appear loose or collapsed, yet the engine is still making a ticking noise.

Any suggestions where to look next?


Thanks!

Tim

[blkfordsedan]

When you say you tore into it, does that mean you disassembled the rocker shaft or you just removed the valve cover? Keep in mind you may only have 1 or 2 bad HLA's. Also, turn the engine over (by hand) so that each rocker is on the base circle of the cam when you check for excessive lash. In other words, it may be that the offending one or two HLA's are in rockers that are on the cam lobes and you won't feel any lash because of the valvespring pressure.