M20 tappets

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fastandloud
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Post Sat May 30, 2015 11:32 pm

Changed the distributor cap and rotor arm today on m20 320 ran quite for a few minutes then the tappets started to make noise any ideas why this would happen
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Brianmoooore
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Post Sun May 31, 2015 10:27 am

There's absolutely no reason why you should, to change the distributor cap, but confirm that you didn't remove the rocker cover.
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fastandloud
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Post Sun May 31, 2015 1:21 pm

Didn't remove rocker cover just changed cap and rotor arm because they were bad
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Brianmoooore
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Post Sun May 31, 2015 8:28 pm

If that's all you did, then there's absolutely no connection with noisy tappets.
The reason I asked about the rocker cover is that it holds a little rocker shaft retaining plate in place at the front of the head, which could conceivably be pulled off with the cover, especially if someone's been over generous with sealant in the past.
The oil feed to the whole top end of the engine is via the space surrounding one particular head bolt, and then into the exhaust rocker shaft through a drilling in the head, and if this retaining plate is missing, the rocker shaft is free to rotate, blocking the path between the drilling and the shaft, and cutting off oil to all the rockers and spray bar.