getting frustrated with engine

[91ROKKRAWLER]

my valve covers are leaking, i know that much. its like a heavy weeping. my oil psi gauge on my dash always shows no psi. i also have fluid all down my transmission pan, oil pan, bellhousing... it leaks about the size of a cd if i leave it parked overnight.

thats not it though. it also ticks, its a tickin that speeds up with the engine, i'm thinkin lifters. then when its cold and i start it, i hear a knockin on the bottom side of my engine.

is it gonna fail on me? i'm plannin on replacing my valve cover gaskets, do i also need to replace my oil psi switch?

 

[Willard]

If you're gonna do the valve covers, do the intake manifold gaskets as well. Those are bound to fail eventually, and you'll have to move a lot of the stuff out of the way anyways.

And the lifter tap is a normal thing for these motors, as far as I know it's just annoying. Mines been tapping probably close to 40,000 miles now, and it still runs great.

 

[4x4xbrian.com]

4.0l noises>>>>

There are two states of lifter noises I've seen.

1) light, one or two lifters floating in and out. sometimes goes away when warm

2) heavy,all lifters, constant never goes away

1 is ane easy fix the rocker arms wear on some of these you will be able to visually see indents in the tips of rocker arms when removed, replace the worn ones and its fixed.

2 is bad, its likely that your oil press guage is correct, and likely even replacing the pump is a lost cause with a knock in the lower end. I would be shopping for a used eng.

to verify your condition, install a manual guage in place of the sending unit
it will be a cheap confirmation and your money will be better spent on replacing it than trying to reassemble a blown grenade.

 

[Willard]

I wouldn't ever trust the "oil pressure gauge" on these trucks.

It's a dummy gauge, it's in the middle when there is oil pressure, and it's all the way down at less the 5psi or so. The senders commonly fail causing the gauge to go down.

If the gauge is down and the truck is still driving, the gauge is bad.

Nevertheless, it would be good to verify your oil pressure with a real gauge. There is no reason to fix the gauge unless it just bothers you. There is also a modification that can be done with a different sender to make it a "real" gauge, but obviously the needle does not have any psi markings on it so it only acts as a reference point.

 

[BIGHVM]

Fully agree with the above in fact all the guages are rubbish- My fuel gauge is crap below half full as it shows empty on a hill going down and full going up! Dont trust them at all.. and also a good engine flush and oil change may fix the problem, I had a friend with a car that did the same noises- turned out after I serviced it that the old oil must have been the wrong oil- too thick when cold and was starving the lifters! flush and mobil 1 fixed it! But get the other leak problem fixed first- YOU dont want expensive Mobil 1 pouring out!

 

[91ROKKRAWLER]

ok so i looked under the hood and found the oil psi switch had been unplugged., plugged it in and have full psi again. the valve cover gaskets are 30 bucks so i'm gonna do those this next week.

brian, its a light tapping that goes away, so should i just replace the dinged up arms?

 

[410Fortune]

What oil are you running?

 

[Maniak]

If you can afford them.. get the Ford Rubber valve cover gaskets instead of the felpro cork ones.. They seem to last better.. and don't split as easily as the cork ones will.

~Mark

 

[91ROKKRAWLER]

yeah i'm gonna get the premium ones. i don't trust cork as far as i can throw them and with them being light and boyant, i couldn't throw them far. i usually run castrol 10 40

 

[91ROKKRAWLER]

http://shop.oreillyauto.com/product...L&MfrPartNumber=VS50368T&PartType=107&PTSet=A

thats wat i got today. its got both valve covers and the upper intake. gonna replace it all. hopefully that stops my leaking issue.

 

[4x4xbrian.com]

I'd bet when you do the gaskets that you will be able to see the worn rockers right away, you should be surprised with how bad they are. check the pushrods to once the rocker arm shaft is off likely you will se some nice and shiny and some scored BAD replace these too along with any damaged rocker arms, its a sure fix but can be expensive if your buying new parts last time I priced the rocker arms they were $12 ea push rods like $3 ea I needed 8 of each, I got good used ones from a scrap motor I had. hopefully you can too. good luck

 

[Maniak]

A full set of rocker arms and pushrods with hardened tips is only $180 from deltacam (+40ish for core until you send your old ones).

Using new ones means you have new/better pushrods and known good rockers.

~Mark

 

[91ROKKRAWLER]

i'll have to go junkyard shopping as i don't have much $$ right now...