When I first start the van, 94, 3.0L, 116k, for about 1-1.5 seconds you can hear the valves, then all is fine. It does this when cold or warm. I'm using Mobil1 5/30. Does this seem normal? or is there something I should be concerned with. I've had this van for about 6k now, and I think it has always done this. Thanks, Ken

 

I'll assume you have enough oil in the pan, you're not parked on a slope, and that you've tried other tricks to unstick valves.

Some oil filters have a really bad anti-drainback valve, and can leave the engine with no oil after it's been shut off for a while. The other possibility is that the oil pump is weak, or the engine clearances are getting wide, so it takes some time for oil to reach the lifters.

 

Sounds like the lifters are leaking down. Not serious, just annoying. A heavier oil like 10W -30 might resist bleeding from the lifters.

 

my 4L has been doing it since I brought it home new 14 years ago. lasts maybe 5>10 seconds then is quiet.
had everything in it from 15w50 to 0w20, lifters still had the cold clatter.

can try a can of Seafoam or Rislone in the oil 10 miles before oil change to clean out any oil gallery or lifter plugging issues.
didn't help mine. last time I had the engine opened up she was as clean as new inside. these newer sequential fuel injected engines seldom produce any sludge unless the engine/PCM is not running correctly.

wife's Honda has more cold start up clatter than the Aero

 

Again, if you use cheap filters, the oil drains out of the lifters after the motor is turned off, results in oil starvation at startup. The best thing you can do to combat this is first, run some AutoRX through the system, Rislone works pretty good too. Then refill with a quality 5w30 oil, synthetics with a good additive pack are best, I recommend Royal Purple, it has a good moly disulphide content, and the moly is what lubricates the lifters and rings. Use a genuine Motorcraft filter, or at least a filter that has a good anti-drainback valve and the proper bypass pressure.

If that still doesn't work, you probably have to live with it, unless you want to rebuild the top end. If you do have to open the motor for any reason, the lifters can be serived without pulling the heads. You don't want to mess with that though unless you have a reason to pull the valve covers off anyway.

 

oil anti-drainback valve only prevents the horizontal and vertical with opening down filters from draining back into the crankcase.

Filters mounted such that oil tends to drain from them usually incorporate an anti-drainback valve to hold oil in the filter after the engine (or other lubrication system) is shut down. This is done to avoid a delay in oil pressure buildup once the system is restarted; without an anti-drainback valve, pressurized oil would have to fill the filter before travelling onward to the engine's working parts. This situation can cause premature wear of moving parts due to lack of oil in the meantime.

The 4L has the filter mounted with opening up in close to vertical position with no possibility of drainback unless parked nose down on a high angle slope. All hydraulic lifters bleed off oil from their chambers with engine off; filter type, antidrain back valve and filter position do not affect lifter pressure bleed off.

Most hydraulic lifters are noisy on cold startup. factors affecting noise level are lifter design, gallery size feeding lifters, any slug or particle blockage of gallery or lifter fill hole, oil viscosity, worn oil pump etc.

I've ran everything from Amsoil Donaldson $25 oil filters in this to Purolator Pure Ones to Motorcraft to cheapy lower tier store Purolator reboxes. noise the same.
Oil type and viscosity doesn't affect my lifter cold start noise.

Ford OHVs have more hydraulic lifter cold start noise issues that others. Honda has the same issues. Not a bad thing but just difference in design and tolerances. Aeros and Ford's small pickups with the OHV V6s were never know for low levels of NVH

believe the heads on the 4L OHV have to be pulled to get the lifters out

here's something on filter comparisons for those that have too much time and money. maybe when I get that new Mercedes SL600 I'll go with the $60 filter and $400 oil changes.

NapaGold Oil Filter vs MotorCraft Oil Filter Comparison: FleetFilter Secure Online Store

one design weakness on the OHV 4L that will cause lifter like noise is the poorly oiled rocker arm ends which wear fail and cause the end of the push rod to fail. persistent lifter like noise with warm engine and good oil pressure? pull the valve covers and check all the rocker arm ends. the rocker arm ends were not hard surfaced but just machined soft steel

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Rebuilding The Ford 4.0L Pushrod V6: Engine Builder
The pushrods and rockers on the 4.0L tend to show a lot of wear, even on engines with low miles. We suspect that there are two reasons for this problem: (1) The material in the rockers appears to be too soft, so they wear on the tip, and; (2) there’s not enough oil getting to the pushrod socket, so it gets worn out, too.

There’s pressurized oil at the rocker shaft to lubricate the rockers, but there’s no direct way for that oil to get to the pushrod sockets. There’s a passage in each rocker that allows oil from around the rocker shaft to migrate out to the small hole in the top of the pushrod socket, but it’s wide open on the outer end so there is no pressure there to feed the oil down into the socket.

Apparently the small hole in the pushrod socket that intersects this passage is supposed to meter oil down into the socket somehow, in spite of all the motion that’s trying to sling the oil out from the open end of the passage in the rocker. It’s hard to believe that any oil can actually get into the sockets, so it’s no wonder they wear out prematurely. Rebuilders should expect to rebuild or replace most of the rockers. The tips can be ground if they’re not worn too badly and the sockets can be repaired by installing a special insert that’s available along with the tooling needed from Silver Seal (800-521-2936) or Goodson (800-533-8010). Or, if you prefer to have someone do them for you, rebuilt rockers are available from Delta Camshaft at 253-383-4152.

You may want to consider flame-hardening the tips, too. Ed Davis at Waterhouse Motors in Tacoma, WA, has been doing this for awhile to eliminate wear on the tips. He found that the wear on the tips was loading the valves so hard to one side that they were wearing out the guides and causing other problems in the process.

Plan on buying a lot of new pushrods, too. Most of them are scuffed and worn on the tip due to the lack of oil in the socket.
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what noise? listen to one of the newer 4Ls OHC Fords with loose chain slap. Maytag washer on it's last legs hopping across the laundry room floor sounds better.

good quality brand name mineral engine oil will make one of these simple engines last as long as the $10 a quart expensive stuff.

more on 4L lifter and NVH

The infamous OHV 4.0 rattle, tap, tap, is indeed the lifters! - Ford Explorer Ranger Enthusiasts "Serious Explorations"®