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HOLY CRAP it's Tunes!!!

I don't know if I can readily agree with you on the bore, tunes...
The head I just worked on, we had to get the HLA bores actually RE-bored. They were extremely worn and marred.

Even though they were re-bored, the HLA's sat wonderfully and didn't tick.

My b6 as well had it's head re-worked. My new HLA's ticked but for a different reason. My cam timing was off. I dunno, but it ticked like a mother for a while. When I installed new cams, I corrected the cam timing and it runs beautifully now.

This is all on the DOHC, just for reference.

Also, if you overtighten the cam caps on the DOHC, it WILL create a stress bubble in the bore, which will cause the HLA to stick.

If your cam caps bolt right next to the HLA bore, and you didn't properly torque them down, and/or you overtorqued them, then you run the risk of stretching the aluminum... that's what happened to one of our heads.

Dunno man.. but if you had yours RE-bored.. did you use a stock HLA? Or did you use a HLA spec'd for the new bore size? In my case.. I just bought new HLA's.. we found (my engine builder and I) that it was one of the HLA bores on the same cylinder where the burned valve was. #3 cylinder. We checked the HLA's.. all mic'd out to be the same size.. but the HLA in that one bore was always the one (we tried 3 different ones) that ticked. And the fact that you found your bores to be extremely worn & marred shows the wear I am indicating

I am not saying this will be the case ALL the time.. just that it is what occurred (still occurs even in this engine today if I let it sit too long) on my engine

Tunes67

My own B6, I didn't have rebored. I had all the hla's replaced with brand new ones, and I drove it around with a tick for a couple months.
The issue with my car was the cam timing was off? It wouldn't tick for a hour of driving, but after that it was yapatapatoo!
After I corrected the timing the ticking stopped completely and drives gorgeously now.

I rebuilt my friend's B6 which was driven for tens of thousands of miles with a blown headgasket. The head was gunked up, and the bores were marred because of the water/gunk material.
That did not cause a tick, though. It was the tiniest of a stress bubble that happened, causing the HLA to "catch" in it's bore. This ranged from one HLA not being able to even move, to another HLA simply just seating rough.
I would personally question whether that bore you're having issue with somehow "caught" your HLA causing it to adjust poorly.

We replaced his HLA's with the my personal old set, and it runs smoothly. We didn't change the HLA diameter.

Of course, you've seen inside your engine many more times than I have so this probably doesn't apply to yours in the slightest, but regardless, it still could be the slightest of possibilities.

Solid lifters FTW.

So while you replace the HLAs, are there any other items that should be replaced or looked at? I see that a lot of you are rebuilding the head completely. Is it just advised? What else could I work on/replace/clean up while I'm R&R the HLAs?

well, timing belt, water pump, camshaft and crankshaft front oil seals, distributor o-ring, valve cover gasket...

... You COULD replace your stem seals without removing your head, but you'd need to compress the combustion chamber to keep the valves from collapsing.

do you need HLA's? I got some extras that have only a thousand miles on it, if that.

I've known other guys to fill the cylinder with rope via the sparkplug hole to stop valves from dropping.

Was it Tunes talking about the bores being the incorrect size? That thought was in the back of my head all day. I don't understand how it could be the bore in the head, that doesn't make any sense to me. I'm not even sure the edge of the HLA touches the head at all. If they interfered, I think it would be bad design, as it would bend a little, and mess with the bore....

But! The bore of the tappet... If that were to wear out (very possible, as often it compresses on startup when it has drained of oil for other reasons) it would lose pressure, kinda like when you scratch the plunger/cylinder of a strut/shock absorber....Also, its not a smooth unit, it seems to be made of laminated metals...

dont use synthetic oil on old engine, it will start leaking everywhere. Go ahead and flush engine and buy good oil filter *dont get Fram. Get Napa gold at least, theyre good Wix made filter. You can run little thinner oil though so it will flow easier to HLA's