Valves or lifters?

[bilden]

When I first start up my 92 EB in the mornings, I hear a distinct clicking noise coming from the engine. The speed of the clicks vary with the RPM’s, but the clicking will go away after driving the car for a few miles after the engine seems to warm up. It used to not do this so I am assuming that something is starting to go bad. Am I looking at a valve job or could it be a lifter starting to go bad? The engine has about 110K miles on it. It shows now signs of loss of power and runs good other than the clicking noise. Oil preasure seems to be good also although it varies some time from the middle of the gauge to being a tad bit on the low side even though I have plenty of oil in it. I would deeply appreciate any input or advise. Thanks for your help.

 

[ld50]

Could be your hydraulic lifters.
The hydraulic lifters in our engines tend to have problems, mine ticks all the time.

I`m going to suggest some searches for ya, try doing them in both "general explorations", and "under the hood":

Search for "hydraulic lifters" to find more info on the lifter problem I mentioned.

You oil pressure guage is not a real guage, it reads pressure in that it will sit at the half way mark constantly.

Search for "oil pressure guage" for a more clear answer on that.

You should find quite a few discussions on those matters, good luck!

 

[justsearching]

Hydraulic lifters operate on engine oil pressure. If all are ticking at startup then it could indicate oil is low or your pump is failing. It could also mean you're using too viscous an oil for the weather in your area. Do they all stop within a minute of startup? If just one or two lifters are ticking, it's usually caused by something in the lifter hanging up or plugged orifices. Habitually overextending oil change intervals (varies by oil/engine/driving/environment...) can allow sludge and particles to build up, interfering with flow. It doesn't take much to prevent the lifters from pumping up until the oil is warmed and thinned down.

Are you the original owner? If you don't know the vehicle's service history I'd assume contaminants as a low-effort possibility. An easy fix is to use a detergent additive. Things like CD2, seafoam, Marvel, Rislone contain naptha and other simple solvents to break up/dissolve solids and detergents to suspend them for removal by your filter. If the problem goes away, change the oil and filter and run another batch for a short (~1K) oil change interval. Have to be vague about duration and miles since some products contain higher solvent percentages and reduce lubrication qualities of the oil. Several products are designed as a driveway-only flush, not to be used while driving. i.e. Rislone has their engine flush and Anytime products. The flush is just a higher percentage version of the same product. Read and stick to whatever product's directions and good chance you'll get rid of the ticking.

Good luck, Dave

 

[verlane24]

I had a constant ticking problem until last oil change. I ran half a can of seafoam in the crankcase for about 20 minutes, then changed the oil. I had been using mobil one 10w-30, but switched to 5w-30, and changed the oil filter with a plain motorcraft(had been using fram).

Not sure exactly what cured the problem, but I now have no tick. Others on the board have said that Fram filters can cause ticking, so it may have been that.

Anyways, it's alot cheaper to try that first than to rebuild the top end. The truck runs like crap and throws a CEL while the seafoam is in there, but afterwards it was a ton quieter. It did not cause any additional leaks either.

There are some here who would never put anything but oil in the crankcase, and I used to be one of them, but seafoam seemed to do my engine good

later
brian