Loud Lifter Noise

[RickyCRX]

Alright, for some time now my '98 Blazer has been randomly making a loud ticktickticktick clatter on cold startups. It started one day out of the clear blue without any warning on a cold start. Sometimes the sound goes away after 10-15-20 seconds or so, other times it goes away within 3-5 seconds, still yet other times it takes 1-2 MINUTES to stop making the noise; the craziest thing is that some mornings the engine starts up very quietly and 'normally' as an engine should sound, without any rattling. When it makes the noise, the sound is very loud and definitely sounds like it's coming from the top end (might just be on one side, but it's so loud it's hard to tell). I know for sure that the noise isn't rod knock or piston slap. About 400-500 miles ago I put in a bottle of Auto-RX shortly after an oil change and it seemed that things were quieting down for a while; more often than not, the engine was very quiet in the mornings.

However, this is where things get interesting. I thought things were getting better, the couple of times the engine made the loud clicking noise, it would go away quickly, but then two nights ago something strange happened. The engine did it on a warm start after sitting 1 hour after I had just driven 25 miles across town while pulling a 1500lb trailer. I thought it was odd, but the noise went away quickly, parked the vehicle, and went about my business. I then started it up again later that evening just to see if it was still doing it and it sure did, but again quieted back down. I then didn't drive the truck at all on Sunday, but got back in it to go to work Monday morning and started it. Again the noise was back and very loud... Oil pressure was perfectly 'normal' for what this vehicle normally does. I waited long enough for the temp gauge to come about half way up to normal operating temperature (about 3-4 minutes, since it was 32F this morning) and it still didn't go away. I finally decided that I wasn't going to worry about it any more this morning, shut it off and took the S2000 to work, instead.

Now, for a while when it would make these noises, the oil pressure indicated that it was much higher than normal (would peg at almost 80psi when I revved it up to 2500rpm or so)... I just can't figure out what's going on. The engine has just under 130k miles on it; I've only owned it for the last 11k miles, of which I have changed the oil every 3500 miles or less since I purchased it. I can't figure out what the deal is with this thing. If anybody has any ideas, please let me know. I didn't think lifters were a common failure point on these engines.

[OBI WAN]

Lifters can do this either when they get older, or even new when the oil holes plug up and they cant pump up. One thing you could try is adding what the can of sea foam recommends to the oil. Run it a max of 500 miles then change the oil. Since the noise does go away it cant be a collapsed lifter, merely one that is sticking or even on its way out. But the sea foam if it can get into it good and is usually does will get whatever buildup is out and cure most of it!!

[LEADFOOT]

Jedi,is that sea foam stuff pretty good stuff. When I start up my blazer it does that. I only 63k on it. In the morning it makes like a lifter sound. Its not that loud and goes away pretty quikly. After I start it in the morning after a few sec. I give it a little throttle and it goes away. My dad says its just the hydraulic lifters pumping up. I use Mobil One15W 50 full synthetic oil. It doen't get that cold in FL. It also does it even when the motor is hot. After I start it when its hot it goes right away. Should I use some of that sea foam. Also I don't always change my oil at 3k its usually about 4 to 5k with synthetic oil and a pure one purolator filter. Is that a bad thing?

[OBI WAN]

Jedi,is that sea foam stuff pretty good stuff. When I start up my blazer it does that. I only 63k on it. In the morning it makes like a lifter sound. Its not that loud and goes away pretty quikly. After I start it in the morning after a few sec. I give it a little throttle and it goes away. My dad says its just the hydraulic lifters pumping up. I use Mobil One15W 50 full synthetic oil. It doen't get that cold in FL. It also does it even when the motor is hot. After I start it when its hot it goes right away. Should I use some of that sea foam. Also I don't always change my oil at 3k its usually about 4 to 5k with synthetic oil and a pure one purolator filter. Is that a bad thing?

Sea foam is the best stuff you can buy for cleaning the motor, injectors and intakes. They have 2 verisons that I use, the over the counter injection cleaner and the Trans Tune. The Trans Tune of nearly 100% of there active ingredients where the injection cleaner is diluted. This is according to the people I have dealt with as Sea Foam representitives. GM top end cleaner if Sea Foam Trans Tune if no one knew that.
Now with your truck its 100% possible that its normal and nothing wrong. If you look at the Articles section I believe, I have a write up for 2000+ GM trucks about start up lifter type noise. Its light piston slap is what it is and Ive noticed that when I run Syn oils which I do for winter my noises are more frequent and a little longer. This I know is lifter pumping up and the piston slap is a possibility. Why SYN oils, while they do protect to there weight ( 5-30) etc, they are actually thinner oils which dont pump them up as well and fast.

Syn oils I run 7-10K and no less. Too many provable tests were done showing syn oils were dam near the same protection at 7K as they were at 1k. Maximum recommendation these labs proved to go was 12K, so!!


Pure-Oil-Not-Later, NO I WONT use one of those. Test studies on filters were done which I also believe I did post in the Articles and if I didnt I must, show Fram and Pure-Oil-Not-Later where the worst 2 filters in the world and it didnt matter whether they were Golds and Extra Guards. There were no bests and the recommended filters were Wix, Delcos and a few others.

[OBI WAN]

Dammit, now you got me going!!!!

OK first off. Manufacturers have established that under 20 microns a filter must achieve. Under 10 Microns is a no no since it'll take so much out that really isnt a problem or create enough wear, that it will plug filters very fast. All tests were done on every filter known to mankind. Certian special filters like the A/C Delco golds and a few others did a little better on average on life and filtering abilities over there life, but the difference wasnt recommended to go with since the filter prices doesnt justify the difference its that slight. K&N and other high end filters didnt even test as well as the average filters I mentioned in the last post. They mostly all filters to just under or to 20 microns thats how they allow more flow, KMART filters do that so that should tell you something!!!

Nothing but Napa Wix or A/C Delco here baby!!!

[LEADFOOT]

Wow. I was told purolator pure one was a good filter. It was proven to me that the Fram filters that use card board on the inside are junk because the card board falls apart. After I put 3.5k on one I cut it open and found cardboard fibers all stuck to the filter. I will have to check out the article section. Sorry if I make any spelling errors or double typed letters, I am using my work cell phone/pda for my internet right now. Its a treo 600 from sprint if you have ever seen one the buttons are really close. Its a pretty neet phone though.

[bvr775]

Syn oils I run 7-10K and no less. Too many provable tests were done showing syn oils were dam near the same protection at 7K as they were at 1k. Maximum recommendation these labs proved to go was 12K, so!!

serious quetion here so don't get mad. Have "YOU" ever sent your oil off to be anaylized? Don't put a brand name on the sample. You need a control car to do this, but you will be very suprised at the out come.

i work for one of the labs that did the research on synthetics. I'm under a gag so i can't say anything that would effect stocks or anything. Just don't belive everything you read.

[LEADFOOT]

Syn oils I run 7-10K and no less. Too many provable tests were done showing syn oils were dam near the same protection at 7K as they were at 1k. Maximum recommendation these labs proved to go was 12K, so!!
So to save myself some money I could just change the filter at 3k and not the oil? I know this is not the way to test oil, and there probably is no way to test used oil but when I change it I always run some on my fingers and rub that back and forth to see how slick the oil still is. Even though the oil has changed color and turned a really dark brown it is still ok to run up to about 7k????

[LEADFOOT]

Ok so I didn't see BVR's post b4 I posted the last one. Come on BVR you can spill your guts, tell us what you find and what the best syn. oil is.

[RickyCRX]

When I used to have a BMW M3 that took 7 quarts of oil for a change and I was driving about 2500 miles a month, I finally went to changing the filter at 3k miles and changed the oil and filter at 6k miles. I used Mobil 1 when I started doing that any didn't have any problems.

By the way -- I changed just my oil filter this evening since I've only got ~700 miles off of this oil change and about 500 miles with the AutoRX in the Blazer's oil. I then drove it around for a little while and the lifters seemed to quiet down.

I turned the filter upside down on the top part of my drain pan and there was a LOT of sludge inside the filter that came out. Not any chunks, but this black 'goopy' stuff. This was pretty much just like the AutoRX site described. I figure I'll change the filter one more time after another 500 miles or so, then change the oil and filter after 500 more miles beyond that.

I think this engine was severely neglected before I got ahold of it.

[LEADFOOT]

Where can one get this autoRX? And the seafoam stuff. Are they pretty much the same product? Or does one claim to work better than the other.

[T Man]

use the seafoam. I have heard from the old school fellas that using one part transmission fluid instead of oil works great (5 qts of oil needed 4 qts oil, 1 qt of transfluid) then run that through the normal oil cycle (3000 miles)

[RickyCRX]

Auto-RX can be had, here:

http://www.auto-rx.com

It has gotten LOTS of good rep on the forums on bobistheoilguy.com... There are a lot of hard-core folks on there that constantly do oil analysis tests -- the "snake oil" type of products usually don't last long there and get squashed. The Auto-RX seems to be highly regarded over there.

[OBI WAN]

Top 2 syn oils and yes since I work in the manufacturing sector using oils I have tal;ked to these guys personally. Mobil 1 and Amsoil are the 2 leaders and after 7K miles both there oils lube to **** near the same propertied as new oil would. Yes leadfoot, thats what I do, 3-4 k per filter, 7500 miles per oil change!

[LEADFOOT]

I found the seafoam at discount auto parts or what is now advanced ap. Do I use it per the directions. I think it is a 1 qt bottle and says the bottle treats 10qts. Just to make sure I have the right stuff, it says auto.......marine on it. That stuff is pretty cheap. The Trans Tune, is that just for the auto trans. and the power steering pump? Now I need to do this about 500 miles before I am going to change my oil right? Also I rember seeing something about fuel system and that you can pour it your gas tank, is that right. Maybe I was reading something else.

Tman, I thought you couldn't leave the seafoam in there that long?

[OBI WAN]

I found the seafoam at discount auto parts or what is now advanced ap. Do I use it per the directions. I think it is a 1 qt bottle and says the bottle treats 10qts. Just to make sure I have the right stuff, it says auto.......marine on it. That stuff is pretty cheap. The Trans Tune, is that just for the auto trans. and the power steering pump? Now I need to do this about 500 miles before I am going to change my oil right? Also I rember seeing something about fuel system and that you can pour it your gas tank, is that right. Maybe I was reading something else.

Tman, I thought you couldn't leave the seafoam in there that long?

Sea Foam cleaner is one pint per 20 gallons of gas in the tank.
I use 4 ounces in the crankcase.
If things dont come clean enough to make me happy I use the TransTune the same way! I go 250-500 miles before and oil change. According to them and others its fine to go to the next change even if its 2000 miles, but I aint gonna leave a cleaner in there that long!!!

[LEADFOOT]

I used to own a 96 corsica with 3.1L v6 and then a 99 malibu with 3.1L v6. I wrecked them both, wasn't my fault. With the corsica I started to here some noise every morning when I started it up. I started to use greased lighting oil additive. That stuff is thick. I never heard another noise for the next 60k miles until I wrecked it. When I bought the malibu it made that noise also and so I changed the oil put that greased lighting stuff in there and didn't here another noise for the next 75k miles untill I wrecked it. Then I bought the blazer and did the same thing untill somebody at the track said that stuff is garbage. I explained how it got rid of my noises and he kinda talked me into using just mobil one full syn.

[xtreme canuck]

what i always run is full synthetic quakerstate oil and 1/2 litre of lucus oil stabilizer , we sell that product and i have seen it do great things. it is a great product for eliminating dry starts...and keeping more oil at the top of your engine. it claims to extend the life of your oil by up to 50 % but i run it for the added protection. i have sold it to a lot of customers who say that it quieted their engine ( but not all of them ). i would give the motor a good flush and run about a 20 % lucas to oil mixture....for what it is worth

[bvr775]

Two places to get your oil analyzed are:

Lubricon Lubricant Consultants, Inc 350 E. Churchman Ave. Beech Grove, IN 46107 (317) 783-2968

Cleveland Technical Center 18419 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, OH 44112-1016 (800) 726-5400

[RickyCRX]

I should probably have an oil analysis done on this thing at some point.

I'm guessing nobody else has really heard of much of a problem with lifters on these 4.3l engines? It seems like every strange thing that could possibly fail on this Blazer has.

[LEADFOOT]

I got some seafoam and put it in the oil. I changed the oil last night after about 450 miles and that was the blackest oil I have ever seen come from my truck. It looked like I haven't changed it in about a year or 20k miles. I guess that stuff worked pretty well. I was thinking about cutting the filter open just to see what is in there. I don't hear the noise as bad as before. Also put some in the gas tank.

[Hammer]

can you put the sea foam in the oil that has been in for 2500 miles, then at the 3000 mark change it. i don't really want to change it, put sea foam in it, then change it again.

[Hammer]

i found out thats the way to do it, 500 before oil change

[white00s10]

ive noticed this, too. When i start up my truck, it sounds like a knocking sound, the colder it is, the louder the knock, then when my truck gets up to like 120-130, it goes away, it only does it when its cold out, so i figured its something to do with the fact that its taking the oil longer to get moving through the system. I need to change my oil soon, so ill try that seafoam stuff

[Hammer]

fyi, i did the seafoam, black stuff came out of the exhaust, it runs smoother now and better throttle response, better mileage if i could keep my right foot out of it.