Lifter or Ping problem?

[beavis195]

At 75K, we tried everything to eliminate the ping. The dealer finally settled on removing the octane bar. No ping since. Now at 106K Went up skiing and as we approached the summit I started to hear a faint noise similar to the ping we would get when we went up hiils before 75k. I thought nothing of it, but on the drive home it got louder. Now it does it when ever I accelerate, even slightly. It gets louder as I hit the gas harder. It idles really rough, rougher than it has before anyways. I don't think it's Engine Ping though, but I'm not sure. Could it be a lifter? This is making me mad. Every week there's a new problem!
Thanks

 

[beavis195]

any ideas guys before I take it to the shop?

 

[MSTNGGUY88]

It could be a lifter or maybe a blown header gasket.

 

[Raceit]

I had had lifters go bad in my '91. Depending on how badly you want to check you can take the valve covers off and see if there is any play between the rocker arm and the valve itself. You should not be able to move any rocker arm while it's on the engine. Here is a picture of how bad mine was. You can see the gap. This was a pretty severe problom with my lifters. You could hear the engine idling a block away.

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And the idle kept getting rougher and rougher until I was finally able to tear it down and fix it.
Here is the rest of the pics incase you'r intrested...

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[jsdean]

the 4.0's have noisy lifters anyway. 1st thing, check oil level even 1/2 quart down will make (at least for me) a large difference in lifter noise. Also oil type / brand can make a diff. I get less noise when I use a synthetic blend (Valvoliene or Mobil 1), but this last time I got lazy and took it someplace, they put in penzoil 10w30 and man its a lot louder with that junk. and yes, it is very noticable going up hills when you really give it gas. (esp in high (5th) gear)

 

[nosaj122081]

Is it a consistant noise (when you hit the gas, does it keep a steady clacking noise)? Whenever I've had bad lifters it made a constant clack clack clack that varied with the RPM's... Does it make the noise at idle? Hydraulic lifters typically make some noise at idle when they're bad because of the lower oil pressure.

Does it sound like engine knock? It may be, you might have a bad plug or a bad gap that could lead to bad idle and knock. Theres a huge list of things that it could be, give some more details about what you're doing when it makes the noise, the type of noise, etc... Anything else, I might be able to help a bit more. I've never had noisy lifters in my Explorer or my Ranger.