Can someone explain 'lifter buckets?'

[96ToyoCam164K]

Remember I said I thought that fast=intermittent 'ticking' sound was that old waterpump that failed? Well...I guess not. It still makes that annoying tttttttttttttttttttt__________tttttttt_______ttttt sound from somewhere in the engine especially when I get off the highway from long distances. The ticking will continue as I accelerate but then disappear at about 15 mph. I can only hear that sound when I'm coming to a stop, at idle, and when I accelerate in 1st gear. And I don't hear it everyday. It started at about 195,000 miles. I'm at 214,000

From what I have researched, I believe its the lifter buckets...and if that is the case, what significance does that have on anything? Is it serious? Would it be something else?

[camry6]

The lifter buckets are sitting directly on top of the valve stems. These buckets are sliding up and down in a precision bore as the camshaft lobes press on these to open/close the valves. There is a shim of particular thickness sitting on top of the bucket, between it and the camshaft lobes. This shim is what determines the valve clearance for each valve. As wear takes place, the gap between the cam lobes and shims gets bigger and this is where valve tick comes from. LONG story short, it probably needs a routine valve adjustment.

[MR2Jedi]

Lifter buckets are round inverted, steel alloy cups that go over the top of the valve and spring . They are the contact surface for the overhead cam. They have a shim on the top surface that makes the actual contact with the camshaft lobe. This shim is removable and can be replaced with a different thickness shim to adjust valve clearance.
When the clearance becomes too small, thru valve seat wear, they can tap the backside of the cam lobe giving you a ticking sound.

[csaxon]

[csaxon]

[96ToyoCam164K]

kewl...thanks for the info. I'll run this by my mech and hope thats the issue..

[doozergreengrass]

I have that ticking noise too, but my valve clearances were suppossedly done by the machine shop when getting the head done. They reinstalled all the lifter buckets and I never touched them, just unbolted and rebolted both cam shafts. So why'd it still be ticking? On the top of each bucket is a little groove, does it matter where that groove is positioned? While I never removed the buckets, I can't say for certain if they got turned or not while I worked in there.

[MR2Jedi]

No, the grooves move around. There's nothing to stop them from doing that. Perfectly normal.
The grooves are for shim removal.

[LVLT FIXIT]

Rotating them makes no difference. Pull your valve cover and follow the sequence to adjust them by changing the shims. Takes a special tool to depress the valve spring and remove /replace the shim with the cams in place. You could measure all of them, if you are lucky, and the loose one is on the exhaust side, you can remove the exhaust cam and install the correct shim. If it’s the intake side you cannot remove the intake cam unless you remove the timing belt. You might recheck the torque on the cam bearing caps too. – Maybe they are not full torque, cam could have be on a bind when installed. If this is a new valve job, then I would be barking at the machine shop that did the setup. Be sure to check the cam lobes for wear if you have a really loose one.

[doozergreengrass]

Well the machine shop didn't do the final install of the cams, as I picked the head up from them ready to go. All I had to do was take the cams out (the service bolt was in place at this stage), bolt the head on with new hg/bolts, reinstall cam shafts, caps and vc. I'm pretty sure I double checked the bearing cap torque and followed the torque sequence. But when I went to put in the new cam shaft seal, I couldn't get it to fit. As the vc hadn't been put back on yet, I loosened, rather than completely remove the bearing cap above the cam shaft seal, put the seal in and tetorqued it in 3 passes. I don't know if one cam may have been on a bind, can you please explain how i'd know if I remove the valve cover?

Thanks!!!

Rotating them makes no difference. Pull your valve cover and follow the sequence to adjust them by changing the shims. Takes a special tool to depress the valve spring and remove /replace the shim with the cams in place. You could measure all of them, if you are lucky, and the loose one is on the exhaust side, you can remove the exhaust cam and install the correct shim. If it’s the intake side you cannot remove the intake cam unless you remove the timing belt. You might recheck the torque on the cam bearing caps too. – Maybe they are not full torque, cam could have be on a bind when installed. If this is a new valve job, then I would be barking at the machine shop that did the setup. Be sure to check the cam lobes for wear if you have a really loose one.

[doozergreengrass]

I know it was just yesterday, but anyone got an opinion on my above post? Sorry, just trying to sort out this bloody car once and for all!

[Jason.MZW20]

There are also shim-under buckets and shimless buckets. Toyota has shim-under buckets available for the 5SFE and 3VZ/1MZ from the 5SFNE (natural gas 5SFE), and shimless buckets are available from any newer Toyota engine that still used bucket lifters (1ZZ, 2AZ, single VVT-i 1GR, etc.).

Shim-under buckets require cam removal for adjustment, but are less likely to pop out under high RPM use.

Shimless buckets require no adjustment, just replacement if out of spec; they come in various sizes, just like the previous shims.

[Mister_Perkins]

Dozer, When replacing the Cam seal I always keep the outer cap off, slide the seal on and torque the cap down. That's how i've always done it because its easier than trying to drive the seal in with the motor in-place.

[MR2Jedi]

Yeah, I'm using the shimless buckets from the 1ZZ in my 3sgte. 30% lighter.