The AUSubaru.com.au Forums

ive recently got my 29 EJ22 liberty on the road and have noticed (well u cant miss it ) a tappit like sound from the engine and its pretty loud ive done a oil and filter before i started driving it again . is this pretty common on the early EJ ?

bet it is the hydraulic timing belt tensioner

ya thats brand new along with a timing belt kit.

probably the hydraulic lash adjusters. They gum up if you don't do regular oil changes. You could try one of the additives to stop lifter tick, or if that doesn't work you'll have to clean them manually, or replace any stuffed ones.
Pull off the rocker gear, remove them from the ends of the rockers, and see if they compress. If they do they're stuffed. I cleaned mine by holding open the check valve on the end with a small allen key and flushing them by pumping petrol through them. Then pump through fresh oil. I found I only had to buy one replacement. From memory they are about $55 each. This was a couple of years ago though. Its worth blowing compressed air through the oil galleries in the rocker arms while they're off too.

My WRX had been sitting for a long time, when we got it started it ticked like a bomb so we drained the oil and put 5L of diesel in the sump, left the car to warm up giving it a very light rev every now and then (about 15min all up) drained the diesel and put new oil in, ran like a Swiss watch after that, the detergents in the diesel clean all the old built up gunk out of everything, old trick that works.