I beat the notorius 4.0 valve clatter

[yosh18981898]

Hey everyone,

I think I finally comepletely rid my 92 x of its annoying valve clatter. Heres what I do:

1. Use only high quality 87 or 89 octane fuel from a quality gas station. (I use only Shell, Mobile, or Citgo)

2. Use Prestone fuel injector cleaner every 3000 miles

3. Use Restore engine oil additive every 6000 miles.

I can mash the gas pedal into the floor at 75 going up hill and still remain valve clatter free. I'm very excited about beating the valve clatter. It was driving me nuts and gave my "anti-ford" friend a reason to hold his beliefs.

Hope this post helps someone.

 

[IAmTodd]

So its just really covering it up?

 

[Billy177]

i dont really know about that restore stuff . all it does is thicken your oil and has some other additives. i woudl just just go with some 10w30 or some heavire depending on your milage

 

[rfuree11]

I've been using restore for a while and it works great, i missed it on one oil change and i noticed a big difference, but im not sure if it was just in my mind

 

[FordExplorer18]

I have used that restore stuff on a few cars and I like it. It seems to work to me.

 

[Maniak]

I think we may be confusing valve clatter with ping (detonation).

Valve clatter is the noise you hear when there is extra clearance between the valves and the lifter.

Ping or detonation is the noise you hear when you have incomplete combusions or combustion when you shouldn't (e.g. too early)..

The ping can be caused by too lean of a mixture, carbon buildup and a few other things...

I think what you have taken care of is pinging... which normally happens on hard acceleration at lower rpms..

~Mark

 

[yosh18981898]

No, it was valve clatter, because the engine made the noise at rpms of 3000+ at any acceleration. I've heard pinging and this is a different noise.
But all I know is that the only noise I hear when I floor it is that sweet 4.0 hum, WITHOUT ANY VALVE NOISE!!!
The Restore actually really helps, it was the additive that finnally cleaned up the valve noise

 

[Maniak]

If you are getting true valve clatter at above 3000 rpms, then most likely you are running with low oil pressure.. The restore may be helping increase the oil pressure...

If you have the time, grab an el cheapo manual oil pressure gauge and hook it up instaed of your electric one long enough so you can see what your oil pressure is.

It should be 50-60psi when the oil is cold at idle..
Once warm, the oil should be at around 20psi at idle.. adn 40-50 when cruising.

If it is low, you may have fixed the clatter, but you should start thinking about bigger repairs soon.. If your oil pressure is good then you can relax....

having low oil pressure at higher rpms is usualy a bad thing that requires major repairs... restore won't normally fix that, but if it did for you.. great... one more thing people can try before dropping lots of money on a rebuild when they can't afford it.

~Mark

 

[yosh18981898]

My oil pressure is fine. The noise may have been knocking or pinging i dont know. I do know that it only made the noise when in 3rd, 4th, and 5th when the engine got under a heavy load. Now the noise is completely gone!

 

[Mbrooks420]

DId you check the oil pressure with a real gauge? The gauge in the Ex is really just a fancy idiot light. If it reads higher than 5-7 psi it reads normal. If it falls below these it reads nothing. Thats why it never moves when driving. Thanks Ford

 

[yosh18981898]

I'm tellin you guys that there's nothing wrong with my truck, if I suspected low oil pressure, I would hook a guage up to it. However, the truck runs like new. The engine runs great and sounds great. As for the noise, I know it had somthing to do with the valves and I know a lot of other 1st gen. explorer owners who have experienced the same noise. Now the noise is gone, the engine sounds great, runs great, and shows no symptoms of any problem whatsoever.

As the doctor allways said: "If there's no syptoms, the patient aint sick!!!"

 

[Maniak]

I'm glad you fixed the unknown noise.

I was just trying to clear up what the problem was for people who use the search feature to try to fix their problems and to make sure you knew that is was possibly something more serious (which it doesn't sound like it was)

Currently, as I understand it, some unknown problem that caused valve noise at the higher rpms was fixed by cleaning the injectors and thickening up the oil and swelling seals (thats what restore engine tune up in a bottle fixes)... I for the life of me, can't come up with a cause for the issue other than oil pressure (which it doesn't sound like it is/was?)...

The issue I have is that you say "As the doctor allways said: "If there's no syptoms, the patient aint sick!!!" and I do see a symptom. You are running Engine Restore to keep the truck from making noises, thats a bandaid, not a fix.. If the enjector cleaner fixed, it then thats a real fix... I'm just saying, that an unknown problem was fixed by throwing multiple things at it, some of which are a bandaid and there may still be an issue, but I hope it really is fixed, and that you don't need to keep throwing engine restore in every oil change (but that is cheaper than rebuilding for quite a while) Best of Luck to you...

I have filed away what you did as another possible fix for valve noises at high rpms (other than low oil pressure).. and maybe this thread will help someone else with valve type noises at higher rpms that doesn't have ping or low oil pressure..

~Mark