ticking? It actually seems that my valves and lifters are still ticking and the lifters have been replaced twice. It ticks at idle and at speed and ticks more when it's cold. Oil type/freshness makes little or no difference. Could it be my springs? As far as I know, they are the original factory springs...

I realize that this is revisiting an old issue, but now I think that it's not only lifter noise, but valve noise as well. I've still got the Eurospec 268 cams and I want to solve this mystery and try to put them in again and see if they're super loud again.

Factory repair manual says, if they tick above 2000 rpms & engine warm, replace.

So if they tick "cold" its normal.

If they tick below 2000 rpm, its normal.

If your that worried check oil pressure again.
Also does your vehicle have pressure relief valves(pressure limiting) to keep constant pressure to the head. For some reason I had a problem about a year ago when i had my coolant flushed the oil light came on. It turned out to be a corroded oil sending unit wire. It was odd and you would think I would have had a dashlight warning tell me anyway especially with all the modern electronics today...but no I found out through a coolant flush.
Brad
Playerseightball@aol.com

Yeah, I had the oil pressure relief valves and the anti-drain back valves replaced. I know it's "allowed" to or supposed to tick below 2000 rpm, but I wonder if you guys heard it what you would think. there's a bunch of different noises that seem to be coming from the top of the engine and this whole thing with the 268 cams when I put them in before and making a tonne of noise really makes me wonder what's going on.

Were the valve springs and valve retainers ok. I had the same problem although a couple more to add. It turns out i needed a valve job etc. I would almost always get ticking like you described but that is just a signiture sound on Audis. I was actually thinking of running a higher viscosity oil than i used too . Maybe like 10w-30 Amsoil in the winter and 20w-50 series 2000 Amsoil. But before my recent problems leading to "no drive condition" I would hear a sound (like a "clunk-clunk" if i really listened for it) on the passenger side head and assummed it was cyl1 doing this (had everlasting Misfire Cyl #1 detected P301) When my car is finished at TDL and if she runs well then i am not going to complain...turn up stereo; especially if all components are operating at spec levels (oil press,coolant,tran,electric).
When i get er back will check voltage on pump and upgrade alternator to 160amp bosch (ultranator); I would never put two alts on any car (it will put more stress on the engine/components.Its got a new battery but i still have voltage spikes from my stereo (ran through 2xtant amps and a 5 cap box); might be pulling to much amps and starveing the electrical system of power (fuel pump,ecu).
Brad
Playerseightball@aol.com

like one qt of 50w if available. Just keep everything same-brand. My 94 S4 clattered 7 ways to Sunday with new top end, Bilstein lifters and anything less than 15w-50.

Of course. I've listened to about 6 of them -- to be sure, they do sound similar. One of them was Greendoh's mom's audi 100 with under 100,000km's on it. It was super quiet and smooth sounding, none of the ticking or metallic grunginess of the other ones with more mileage. The thing is that I thought those noises were due to worn lifters, springs, perhaps something less than optimal oil volume/pressure etc. I addressed ALL of those issues and my car still sounds the same. Other people don't seem to complain about exaggerated noise when installing more aggressive cams either...

I've tried 4 different oils in the last two months. Amsoil, Motul and Mobil 1 Synthetics and Castrol GTX II (which I ran for about two weeks before putting in the Mobil 1 -- which is what I'm running now). The weights have varied between 20-50, 15-40, and currently I'm running 5-40 Mobil 1. I think the car ran more quietly with the motul oil which was 15-40 if I remember correctly, but I could be wrong -- it's a bit difficult to remember. The biggest change I noticed with the Mobil 1 was that cold starting it ticks like mad and you can hear it sitting inside the car...after about 3 minutes the audible ticking inside disappears abruptly. If I rev the engine a little there is some ticking and grunginess as the rpms fall back to idle and then the noise dies down again and stays at a releatively constant level. It's not that I can't live with it as is -- I'm just afraid that when I go to put my 268 cams back in, the previous noise will return.

a loud ticking or even a clunking you can hear sitting inside the car for the first 3 minutes. After the car if warmed up it sounds pretty good, no knock or tick even. My mechanic is saying I should try Valvoline 10-40 and don't use a cheap oil filter.
Sounds like you're saying the Mobil 1 makes the noise worse than the other oils you've tried.

When i'm driving with the windows down i can hear the ticking more than anything else...and it continues all the way up the RPM band...just getting louder with more RPM's. I'm hoping when I do the IM and VP gasket, replacing the check valves will solve the problem.