Declaring war on noisy tappets

[Swanny]

Right, I have had my turbo for a year now (ish) and I can't enjoy the sweet purr of the exhaust without hearing an annoying rattle/tick from the engine when I put any load on it . I ruled out tappets at first but now I'm leaning towards them again, but I'm far from being an expert. Is there anything I can try before I take drastic measures? I looked at engine flush but it's are only for hydraulic lifters (am I correct?) What are my options, assuming it is the tappets? I've had a look through previous posts and can't find much help. Thanks all.

[doingitsideways]

Yeah, mine's the same.

Great from cold, but as the oil warms up and thins, it starts tapping.

Unfortunately, the tappets are shimmed to adjust their clearance.
This means stripping the rocker cover off, measuing the valve clearences, then measuring the existing shims to work out the size you need.

Then there's the problem that they're made of unobtainium now. Not even Renault will entertain you.

I'm thinking of having some made at a decent machine shop when I have the time to strip it down and the money to burn!

I should add though that tappets will tick all the time on a warm engine, rather than only under load.

I'd be leaning toward a slightly leaking exhaust gasket, myself.

Engine flushes are not necessarily only for hydraulic tappets, that's just something the manufacturers claim they can free up.
Personally, unless you have no idea what oil is in there, or the engine is sludged up, I wouldn't bother. My Turbo's oil hasn't been changed for around 9k miles and is still as clean as a whistle.