ticking origin for 2.9. Question

[madclone]

Guys, anyone could explain me one thing? My 2.9 is calm at start up and through city/traffic driving and starts to rattle only at highway conditions. Sometimes it even shuts down a cylinder or two on lighter oil types, heavier oil like 10W60 or 15W50 gives only rattle w/o cylinders shutting down, and slowing down in traffic cures these problems (as was described on this forum many times). This is because of camshaft bearings wear, low oil pressure in the gallery and hydro-lifters collapsing at highway conditions. OK, let it be. My friends 2.9 acts completely different. It rattles at start-up when cold, it rattles when it gets warmer, it rattles all the time, but he NEVER experienced cylinder shot-down at any conditions. So the question is: is there any difference in wear for these two given engines? Wich one of them is in worse condition? The reason I'm asking is that I got my friend's engine for three beers 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.

[hippychick]

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.

[madclone]

yep, we discussed all this in one of the threads below. I know these two engines are almost dead, but I wanted to know wich one is worse afted I described how they act. Anyway I will get an answer when I tear down the second engine , just wanted a forecast from experienced 2.9V6 owners.
Another big problem (and the biggest) - you can not go to a junkyard here and buy a 5.0 engine and all that goes along for $200, $500 and even $1000... engine itself, w/o anything on it costs around $1500-2000 depending on condition. A budjet for engine swap could reach $3000 or even higher wich is very close to the price of the truck itself (like my Br2, 88, 4x4 in a rather poor condition is around $4000). Things are easier with 2.9, cause it's an engine from Europe - we can get a used engine from Scorpio for a price range between 3 bottles of beer to $1000, or order a rebuilt from Germany for $3500
So things are a bit more complicated here in Russia. Either you own a Ford or a Ford owns you )
I have another car to drive, so my Bronco is more like a hobby, I don't have time for it and I don't want to spend much money on it either. Just experimenting like an alchemist trying to make a candy out of a turd After I finish experimenting with dead engines, I'll start experimenting with MIG welding on rotten body. When I finish this, I'll put a can of gasoline on top and light a match )
Just jocking (about gasoline).

[8588ranger]

I don't know what brand oil filters that you have in Russia, but if your friend has a Fram filter on throw it away and replace it with a Motorcraft one. Or you can try different filters that will quiet down
the lifters. Some filters restrict proper oil flow. Noticed that on your previous treads that your have torn apart lifters
to solve you problems. Check out my older treads on how I solved my ticking problems.

[madclone]

yep, it's FRAM. You say they are not good or have wrong specs? Thanks, i'll consider using Motorcraft. It's kinda cold over here, so I plan to get back to my experiments only in a couple of months

PS how are you over there, guys? TV says things are a little ****ty in the US. On another hand things are quite bad in Russia also... I heard spare parts are getting cheaper in the US because of deflation. Is it correct or just another fantasy?

[8588ranger]

Hi Comrad,
I live here on the Big Island of Hawaii. It's a little cold in the mornings but not like you or the rest of continental U.S.
As for parts I've parted about 30 Ford Rangers. (cut them up and get rid of the parts I don't need) I like Rangers and Bronco II's because the head's crack, or the auto trans goes and I get to buy them dirt cheap or people are willing to give them to me. As for 2.9 motors I've got about 12 of them laying around.(wife says enough already) Don't have the space, but I know were I can get 6 more!
Here in America we live in a very spoiled life style. People always need to have new things. Were never satisfide. When Rangers & Bronco II's were new they cost about $15,000.00 - $18,000.00 new. I have better things to do with that kind of money back then.
In America here everybody wants more. That is why were are in a mess today!
Oh, back to Rangers & Bronco II's. On my most recent purchases
I don't have a ticking problem because the previous owners used synthetic oil. I use 10-30 Mobil 1 myself. Synthetic oil does'nt sludge up like regular oil. Please read my older posts. I hate to retype the same stuff again.