Engine Ticking/Clatterig at 16 to 1,800 RPMs

[Pluto]

I've got a problem that has gotten worse over time. I have a '92 XLT with 130,000 miles on it. When I'm going down the highway I get engine ticking at around 1,700ish RPMs. If I step on the gas it gets louder then goes away after I exceed about 2,000 RPMs. Then as I go down the road some more and let the RPMs come back down the noise will come back after a little bit of time.

I don know if it's lifters or what. I'm not too swift on "infernal" combustion engines anyway but it sort of sounds like the same kinda sound my 650 motorcycle had when the valve lash needed adjusted.

Any ideas would be most appreciated. Oh, and some higher viscosity oil seems to help for the first 1,800 miles after an oil change.

 

[Rhett]

It is probably not your lifters.

That might be a little bit of pre-detonation there. It does it at "partial throttle"...but it goes away when you really punch the throttle.

Some things to do:
1) run fuel injector cleaner through it.
2) clean the Mass Air Sensor (MAS) using O2 safe cleaner
3) clean the Throttle Body with the same cleaner

There are "how-to's" on the last two on this site, as well as tons of messages about it here.

Oh, and don't forget to reset the computer after you do any cleaning.