Hydraulic lifter issue

[Mica95]

Good morning team, 1995 wrx

I recently had a tapping noise from the driver's side head, popped the rocker cover off and started to check the valve clearence. Inlet cam is all correct and all with in tollerence ( under shim style bucket ) 

The exhaust cam.... The bucket furthest from the pulley is tight about .06mm so say just out side of tolerance however the 3 nearest the pulley you can push down with your finger so the biggest feeler gauge fits in ! ... Surely this is wrong and almost feels as if there is no pressure ? Does anyone know how these work ... ? Would it be a case of replace buckets or do we think there could be an underlying issue causing this ? 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 5, 2020 by Mica95
Grammar

[savage bulldogs]

You shouldn't be able to push the buckets down very far by hand , so it sounds like they need replacing.However , It could be something stuck in the valve seat , causing the valve not to return/seal properly. 

I'd do a compression test to rule that out first and if alls ok ,then measure the clearance ,remove buckets/shims  ,measure their thickness and buy new buckets shims to match the clearance needed .

There's two types of buckets on scoobies , single piece or separate removable shims .

The single piece ones can still be bought in different thicknesses from subaru .

Unfortunately, subaru have discontinued the type with the removable shims but they can be sourced from the likes of Asperformance in the thickness required