hydraulic tappets

Ok i have a little tap on my tappets iam going to check the tolerances on them later , my question is  are they all one size, is that correct my car it is a 88 gti 8v , my next question is the price, a guy called chubnut can do them for £52 or my vw garage will do them for £160 bit difference is there a difference in quality.

the hydro tappets are all the same size, any slack is taken up by oil pressure. dirty oil can cause the tappets to not pressurise properly, a good engine flush has been known to correct this issue.
this can be done by adding a litre of Dexron II ATF and running the engine up to temp, for a really dirty engine you can run the car for a couple days but only gently, i.e. no ragging it around the place!

then drain the oil and use a genuine vw or a good quality MANN oil filter, the cheapo pattern ones arnt good for hydro tappets. the reason is the proper ones have a non-return valve in which helps keeps the oil in the head and in turn keeps the tappets pumped up.

if all the above fails they can be stripped and cleaned out, but personally i would just replace the set.

ok john will try the flush job thanks, how about the price for the non vw tappets

not bad really, just a case of finding out if the make is any good?

Just one other point dont the hydraulic tappets and the bores wear thus meaning replacement would have to be a over size than oem ones,or does standard new ones always cure the rattle.

no the hydro tappets dont wear the bores, only the top surface. since the tappets pump up to the required clearance by themselves you wont need to worry about this unless the surface is damaged or the tappet is clogged up and wont pump anymore. this is the beauty of them over the odl solid lifters, you never have to adjust or reshim they take care of themselves