2.7L V6 Hydraulic lifter repair/replacement?
 

Hey, new user here. I bought this Accord of mine, oh, about two months ago knowing it had valve noise. However, I thought I was making a sly deal because I was certain that it had mechanical lifters and I would just adjust them myself like I had in a previous Accord. Well, to my surprise, the V6 Accords have hydraulic lifters. Dang. So, here's the issue, it is somewhat intermittent. It doesn't always knock, however, in the two months it has gotten more common and louder. It is definitely NOT injectors, if the injectors were this loud I believe they'd explode. So here's my question, are the lifters replaceable without removing the head, and if not, what is a ballpark reasonable figure to have a shop do it. I am very comfortable and experienced in doing my own work on a vehicle, but I don't know how I feel about removing and replacing a head myself. Also, I've heard that varnishing can cause sticky lifters, if so, can I remove the lifters without the head and clean them?

The 95-97 V6 is a lot different than the 4-cylinder accords.

I think that you can take off the valve cover and inspect the hydraulic lifters for any obvious problem. I am not sure how to remove the lifters.

go get a can of seafoam and warm up the engine and then pour it in the crankcase and run it around 10-15 miles and see what happens. i've had some luck with sticky/ noisy lifters quieting down after a treatment.

I'll end up doing your seafoam suggestion. I have to wait until this coming Tuesday for my paycheck. Can't hurt anyways, I'm pretty sure it's time for an oil change. I'll report back after I do it and let you know if it helps. Honestly, if it just reduces it to the way it was when I first bought it I would be satisfied, driving it 90 miles at 70 or so mph a few times is what made it worse.

make sure you use the oil spec'd for the engine as well when you change it. should be 5W30.

^^It may be that just an oil change will eliminate the problem:
Thin oil = low oil pressure to the lifters when the engine is hot?

When you drain the oil, bend a coathanger or something like that; stick it into the oil drain hole & scrape it around the bottom of the pan. Look for sludge. If you find any, then you might suspect some obstructed oil passageways. Repeat the seafoam in the crankcase at the next couple oil changes and/or change oil at short mileage for the next couple oilchanges.

Well, I did the seafoam treatment and changed the oil with the recommended oil. It took some of the sharp metallic bang out of the sound and it's quieter overall, but now it's more consistent haha! Definitely gonna have to replace a lifter. Used a fake stethoscope to determine it's in the back cylinder, of course, naturally. Why would it be easy? Anyways, where would I even buy new lifters for it? I usually shop at autopartswarehouse.com but they only have universal edelbrock kits for american engines so that's out of the question. Any recommendations?

how many miles did you put on it with the seafoam in the crankcase?

Well, I started it and let it idle for five minutes, then I drove it in stop and go traffic for about five-ish miles before I hit the highway and did 70 five miles out and five miles back. So 15 total miles, give or take a little from the in town driving. I finally found a diagram of the head assembly on the internet. Looks like the valves are located above and below the spark plugs, which means if the noisy lifter is above the spark plugs, I can do it without taking the head off. However, it is below the spark plugs, the head would have to come off.