I have a 91 Aerostar, with a 4.0, and 4WD, 145,000 miles. The oil pump was just replaced, and i have lifter noise. 10/40 was put in after the pump change, and I recently changed that to 20/50 but still lifter noise. The mechanic said that the lifter need to be replaced, and that requires the heads to be removed. Any help suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Ron

 

1990 4.0 I thought i had a lifter problem .But my turned out to be a bad plug . LISTEN for the tick location change the plug closest to it .Hope this works for you good luck .

 

If it is a lifter problem, going to a thicker oil will most likely only make it worse.

My 1988 Buick has a bad lifter in it, and I had to go to 20-50 because it smokes really bad, the lifter nois has gotten continuously worse since then... Car is parked now, as it has been replaced. I was told the smoking problem could ba a bad PCV valve...


How are you sure it is a lifter, and not a noisy injector??? we have slight valve noise in our Aero.. 222,700 something miles on it now... the noise always goes away after warm up... I have never and will never put oil thicker than 15w40 in the Aerostar.. now I am running 10w40... I probably should really be running 10w30, but I think it is fine on 10w40.

Don't have the engine taken apart to replace a lifter, unless you plan to have the whoel rebuild done. The cost of the lifter replacement far exceeds the gain. Plus when you mess with only one part of the engine without care to the others you risk the entire engine... You oculd replace the lifter/s, and by having new ones in an old engine, trash the engine... I know some one who had a top end rebuild in a mustang and went out driving it afterwards and threw a rod because the top was tighter, as it was all new stuff, but the bottom end hadn't been touched...

something to think about...

-mike-

 

My dad adds a quart of Diesel fuel in with the oil before he does an oil change. He runs the car until it's warm then he puts in the diesel and runs it about 10 mins or so. Then he shuts it off, drains the oil, changes the filter, adds new oil.
I have seen more than one lifter quiet down after. Cleans all the sticky, thick oil out of the lifter.