Ok guys, summary from previous post... I got an R4 cam (with shims, springs, vernier) got it put in by a workshop recommended by RPD and it working all good and well. Last week, my lifters starting giving off the loud tapping noise so I took it to a mate to have a peek. Turned out Intake rocker arm #1 was loose and damaged the shim and the HLA.

He took out the HLA and replaced it with a newer one but didn't shim it.. which didn't really occur to me until later. The car ran REALLY bad after putting everything back together. Car doesn't idle below 2000rpm, the engine shakes, rattles and rocks REALLY violently.. it's loud as f**k etc etc. I drove it home, realised he didn't shim the HLA after replacing it. So I bought a few shims today, shimmed it up (it took 5 1.9mm shims!!) and tried starting it again. Same problem...

I remember that the rocker arm didn't move at all after I shimmed it with 5 shims.. as in there is ZERO clearance from HLA to the spring... would this cause the engine to run so badly?.. just one HLA/spring on the intake side with no clearance? What clearance should there be?

I'm very sure I didn't bump or move the vernier gear. But is there anything else that could cause this problem? Please give me as much info as you can on this, so I know what to suggest to the mechanic once I get one to have a look.

Thanks heaps guys!

Bump... anyone?

its probably the map sensor hose, its quite common for it to split, or come off.

5 shims is way too much, you only need 1 original + 1 more.

The gap was pretty big with even 3 shims! What I did was add a shim, tighten it up, have a look. The gap was big, so I added another one until I got to 5. Now theres no clearance on that HLA-spring. Can zero clearance on one HLA-spring cause the problem?

The MAP sensor hose plugs into the bottom of the MAP sensor yeh? If it's that, it hasn't come off.. could be a split.. It was all fine (except tapping lifters) until the rocker cover came off and my mate changed the HLA without shimming it... but I'll note down the MAP sensor hose. Thanks for that!

Any other suggestions?

can you explain what gap and what 'hla spring' you are referring to? are you sure the lifters not broken, or 1/2 of it is missing?

Maybe the lifter had no oil so it had free play in it and thats why you fitted so many spacers as my R4 cam only needed 2 and Jasen fitted mine.

My ISC on the throttle body then idle when up like the throttle cable was stuck so when it warmed up I disconnected the lead so it wouldn't rev for no reason but the down side was wouldn't idle when cold.

doesn't have a bent valve???

The Gap i was referring to is the gap between the HLA and the spring... the HLA being the hydraulic lifter.

dasmq.. that could explain it as the lifter was a new one. I didn't have any idle troubles after I got my ChipTorque so yeh, the ISC was fine.

xhxrsix, I'm hoping it doesn't! Any telltale signs? (besides obviously the problems I'm having... which I hope are just an incorrectly shimmed lifter)

The gap between the HLA and the spring, are you talking about the valve spring there?
The tip of the valve should be about 1/4" above the valve spring retainer, like all the other valves in the motor?
Maybe you could take a photo to elimnate the guess work.

If you have the rocker gear off, give the top of each valve a hit with a hammer, not too hard but hard enough to move them off the seats, If you find one or two dont 'sound' the same as the rest, then they might be sticky or bent. all the valve tips should roughly be the same height along the length of the head too.

do a compression test to see if it has a bent,damaged valve, thats way to many shims and also isc could have s**t itself with the cam