Yes I can explain to you what is going on, but I am not sure you are going to like what I am about to you. Funny just yesterday I was in a parking garage and herd a the same lifter ap in a old ford truck as it passed me by LOL.
I purchased an old ford ranger a couple of weeks ago, it had a lifter tap, I didn't know that it went form a tapping sound to almost complete lock up until I drove the truck for long periods of time.
I changed the oil and used some real thick stuff, like motor honey and 20w 50 motor oil, Oh yes it made the
engine quiet down alot, but for only a short period of time, then the tapping came back then after highway driving the
engine was sounding like a deisel and had lost a lot of power.
I would let it cool over night and next day the same thing over again.
I decided to sell the truck, based on something I learned about the truck, I am not telling you to get rid of it, but please read carefully so you can make the best decision for yourself.
This
engine is known for the upper end of it wearing out, sometimes its the oil pump, but My
engine had excelent oil pressure even when it had lost power. But mostly it is just no oil reachign the top half of the motor for various reasons, and you really cant tell with one is the oen to fix offhand.
The main problem with the motor is the design sucks, the "veins" the oil passes through to reach the head and loobricate the valves and lifters are thin, the oil pressure is dependent on having good lubrication on the camshaft bearings. When this
engine is driven with out a oil change for a extended period of time you will get wear on the bearings reducing oil pressure slightly, but worse the "Veins" begin to sludge, and it is at this point two thing happen to the heads:
1. valve guides do not get lubricated
2. adjustable lifters (yes this
engine has adjustabel lifters) begin to unadjust and wear, and also wear the cam out, sure you can adjust them but it will just end up wearign the cam further unless the lubrication problem is fixed!
What happens is that what would be normal wear on a regular motor when driving it without an oil change for extended period of time, it becomes a noisy rattling pain in the butt with this motor, and if the oil is not changed in time, like when it first begins to happen, well then it will progresivly get worse.
till the only thing that can be done is rebuild the motor or at least desasimble the top half and try to clean out the oil passages on the rocker arms.
Some have said they were able to stop the rattling by doing that, some say you can get the cam bearings to pressurize the top half again by turning around a "half moon" shaped washer in the front of the cam under the camshaft gear in the front of the motor.
But here is why I chose not to fix my truck, I wanted the easy path to repair, but in this truck there is no single easy path, there are many and yes I am sure they work, but I did not want to take the time in trying one after the other runing up a huge expense, In reality, I woud say the best repair I herd was actually pulling the motor out and putting in a ford 5.0 motor.
Now to me that sounded like the best answer, why reuild a motor that was crap out of the factory?
But I am poor so I sold my truck, as for you, think hard how much time you want to try on the "easy fixes" compaired to rebuilding the motor, or just putting a good proven
engine like the old 5 litter.
and now I'm thinking if I could get something less worn from his engine. Today I'll tear down the heads to see the valves and valve guides condition. If they are better than mine, I'll swap the heads, maybe rocker shafts etc.
, just wanted a forecast from experienced 2.9V6 owners.
