Engine Ticking

[Oldchief47]

Have a 4.3L w/ 105K on it. Well taken care of, driven a bit hard, stock motor. When cold, has loud ticking sound that goes away after the temp. gauge moves between cold and full hot. Listened with stethoscope and isolated sound to valve train and suspect #1 lifter area to be the problem. Has anyone ever replaced lifters on this motor and how much aggravation is it? I can do it, just wondering if it's doable in a weekend. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

[Hammer Head]

Why do you think it's your lifter & not the rocker?

[Oldchief47]

The ticking goes away once the engine warms up. I suspect that if it was a rocker, it would keep ticking. When I listen with the steth, the sound comes more from the intake/block area than under the valve covers. I know this motor has roller lifters, so I suspect that once the oil warms and thins a little, it pumps up the lifter and the noise goes away. Never hear it once the engine is up to temp. Only when it sits for 8 hrs or longer. Right now, the weather here is very hot & humid, the noise is most noticeable in the AM (6) and a little ticking around 3:30 pm when I get off from work.

[Hammer Head]

Alright, sounds good. I don't see why you couldn't do it in a wknd.

BTW, Welcome to the Planet. IWTTMB

[Oldchief47]

Thanks Hammer Head, appreciate the input.

[Tink]

Pretty common to have lifter issues with a 4.3L. The biggest part to the job is taking off all the stuff to get to the motor!

[Mikz86TA]

Try about a 1/4 quart of tranny fluid in the oil. Run for 15-20 minutes and then flush and refill with fresh oil.
If there is trash in the lifter causing it to stick, the detergents in trans fluid will break it up. Old school trick.

I found this also :
have a 93 rodeo with a 3.2 v6 with 132k mi. I had loud valve noise coming from the right (passenger) head near the back. After talking to a few people and doing a little research on the net, I came to the conclusion that the small hole in one of the hydraulic, automatic valve lash adjuster was probably plugged. The noise was very loud at an idle and stayed on until about 2500 rpm, then it just went away. I surmise that enough oil was getting splattered over the obnoxious lifter. I was told to put an oil detergent in the oil and I did that. It didn’t help right away. I then read on the internet (thanks!) to put a quart of tranny fluid in. I put the quart of tranny fluid in and to be fair I also put a bottle of Prestone fuel injector and intake valve cleaner in the gas tank. Now I had two bottles of oil detergent engine cleaner and one quart of tranny fluid. (of course I drained a little oil). I ran it for 30 miles then I changed the oil. I put Quaker State 5w-30 for high mileage vehicles in and the sound is completely gone. While I don’t know what exactly fixed it, it runs better, and has better oil pressure than when I bought it 25k mi ago. Hope this helps someone. I would highly recommend an oil for higher mileage vehicles if that is what you have.

i also had the same prob with my 93 v6 rodeo, i used the tranny fluid trick and it worked great, the only prob i had was that i was told to only run the engine for about 20 to 30 minutes ONLY ON IDLE with tranny fluid in the oil. This is because tranny fluid has a high concentration of detergents (thats why if you open up a maintained tranny it looks brand new). Anyway did you have any probs running your engine for that wrong with the tranny fluid? Thanks.

SeaFoam is also another detergent to clean sticking lifter.

Later you can run thru Lucas Top End Lubricant as maintenence a few times a year.