Help with 87' Chevy Caprice

II have a few problems with my 87' Chevy Caprice Classic. The car has a 350 V8 5.7L engine in it with 60,000 miles on the engine (It was rebuilt at 60,000 for a total of approx. 121,000 on the car)

Problems:

1. The car starts and runs fine. But when the car is put into gear sometimes the engine will stall out. After it has stalled once the car will stall again when it stops and tries to accelerate(this only occurs when the car has been sitting for at least 1hr).

2. There is a load tapping coming from the drivers side valve cover that becomes very loud on acceleration. The Noise goes away once the engine has heated up. I can easily get to the valve cover and take it off but I dont know what I will encounter when doing it.

3. The headliner. This is a big one as we own 4 of these chevy caprices and 3 have sagging headliners. Ive looked around at headliner repair kits all of which look not to promising. If any of you knows of a good repair kit please let me know.


Thanks for all your help to any of the above.
Aaron

1. The stall sounds like a vaccum leak on the intake manifold. Do a visual/ auditory check under teh hood with the engine running. A leaking vaccum line will hiss. Just replace the entire hose that is leaking

2. This is a worn/ galled/ gummed lifter. Old lifters make noises like what you're described. Replaceing the lifters as a set will eliminate this noise if the cam isn't flat on that lobe.

3. You can replace the headliner yourself if you do not re-use the material and very thouroughly clean the backing board with an adhesive remover.

The engine is fairly loud with the valve tapping and the size of the engine...to the point at which I could be overlooking an air hose leaking. Is there any way to test the vacumm hoses without turning on the engine? Also, About how much woudl it cost to replace 1 lifter? and if i replace 1 is it imortant to replace the others? (Im assuming theres 8) I need the estimate for just parts. and for labor...Labor should not be very much as it is very easy to get the the tapping valve.
Thanks,
Aaron

You might also try adjusting the lash on the cylinder with the knocking lifter. I don't know how much it will cost you to fix it though.

If you have a can of carburetor cleaner or brakleen handy, You can spray it around the top of the engine to help you find a leak. If the engine accelrates 500-1000rpm's in one area, well than you know that the vacuum leak is in the area.
You might also want to check it for trouble codes. This can point you in the right direction if it has any DTC's stored.
You could also have an EGR valve sticking open intermittantly. Generally speaking, that will cause a rough idle, black smoke upon acceleration, and a noticable decline in fuel mileage

Im having the same problems with the stalling when putting it into gear and when the engine is on there is a hiss that I can hear. I guess that I'll have to replace that hose. I was told that it is a control unit that will cost $200 to fix.

Ohh. That dont sound good. Does the tapping go away at high RPM? If it does you probaly got a broken piston. You might also have a problem with a vacuum leak.

And you have to buy lifters in sets of 16. One for each valve.
But i would recommend you go ahead and buy a new camshaft w/ your lifters.

I had a similar problem with my 91 Caprice when I had the 305 in it. There was hesitation, and poor idle and that was caused by the EGR valve.

I also had the same ticking . It turned out to be that it needed new lifters and a new cam.

Hope this helps.......


--Rich