SR20DET No Valve Cover (bad lifter?)

My redtop SR20DET just randomly started making this awful sound while idling. It started happening a few days ago during the same drive that it started suddenly dieing when slowing down for red lights. It goes to 3 cylinders on lower RPM's but stays on 4 cylinders for anything above about 2000 rpm's.

Cam timing is perfect. Lifters feel rock hard and I can't squish them in the head, but I just removed them and they can be squished if you poke the holes with an allen wrench (as if you were bleeding them). Engine was rebuilt with a new oil pump and s14 oil pickup tube about 5000 miles ago. Oil light is working properly and it has never lit up while running. It disappears instantly when I start it, except for when I put a new oil filter on and it takes about 2 seconds for it to disappear after I start it.

No idea where the sound is coming from. I was thinking it was gonna surely be a bad lifter or two, but after watching it with the valve cover off and then pulling the lifters and not finding any that were seized up or anything, then now I'm not sure what is causing all the noise.

[jPitro]

I'm having a similar problem with my sr. Very slight ticking noise. But the car runs like crap, idles horribly and dies out, dies at red lights. Ecutalk shows no codes and all sensors seem to be within range. .. So your car just randomly starting running better after the ticking stopped?

[ProfessorTelli]

Hey dude, what you've been saying sounds kinda like whats recently happened to my car, dying after starting up and even when i put the throttle down, the rpm's just drop? at idle it makes this kind of tapping noise but it comes and goes at the exact same idle speed?

[danielmolina]

Its the oil lifter and maybe a misplaced rocker arm

[tejashkumarpatel]

Did you ever find the problem its doing the same thing for my engine?