Hi,
I have a '65 Camper Special with some sort of FE motor. Original was a 352, but at least the heads are from something later because they have smog ports (plugged). Anyway, I've not done much if any work on the engine since I got the truck around 6 years ago. Yesterday I drove a few miles, parked, went on a hike, drove another few miles, got out to look for some bald eagles, and then when I started the truck again, had sudden loud lifter noise that I had not heard before. I stopped at the local garage in town and the mechanic suggested that the oil was no good - maybe had fuel or water in it. Oil is now changed but the noise remains. The noise seems to be coming from the driver side valve cover, so I suspect at least one lifter. There is also some oil and smoke coming out of the breather element in the oil filler cap. The oil pressure at moderate RPM is up quite a bit with the new oil - was around 20, now around 50. Another mechanic who did a bunch of work on the truck when I first got it suggested that it might be a blocked oil pressure bypass valve at the oil filter mounting housing. In his theory, the bypass could have gotten stuck open, so the oil pump is bypassing to the sump and not going to the spots that actually need oil, like the rockers, bearings, etc. He thought the smoke coming from the valve cover would be from a lack of oil and therefore overheating in the top end.

Does anyone have any suggestions on things to look for? Is it going to cause a lot of damage if I drive 10 miles to the mechanic's shop? Should I have it towed instead? The onset of the noise was very sudden, which is the thing that concerns me. Maybe someone poured sand in the oil fill hole while I was hiking!
Thanks

 

If my oil pressure was good I would go ahead and drive it to my mechanic and let them check it out. I have several weak lifters in my 66 F100 and they make noise on occasion but I don't worry about it all that much. It's running on a rebuild from back in 1980 so I figure if a few weak lifters noise is all that's wrong its ok until I replace them.

 

Remove valve covers, both if necessary and take a rag and apply pressure, moderate amount to each valve rocker. Do this with the engine idling, yes with valve covers off you will have oil to clean up but it should not be an issue.

if you find the ticking stops on a specified valve rocker then it’s that lifter. It needs a replacing or it is gummed up.


One thing you could try is adding marvel mystery oil, and make sure you are using oil with zinc/zinc additive. Hopefully you already know that.





one other thing it may be is your fuel pump arm going bad. Take a broom handle,rebar, peiCE of hose and place it on and near the fuel pump and see if you hear the ticking from there. You can use this same method around the heads to determine what the source of the problem is. It could also be a blown exhaust gasket/donut. Feel around for a leak when the engine is cold.

 

So I took the valve cover off and started her up. Expected to get sprayed with oil. There is a little bit of oil on the top of the valve spring retainers, but nothing squirting out or spraying anywhere. One of the exhaust valve pushrods (#3) seemed to rotate maybe 1/4 of a turn each time it opened or closed but that was the only thing remarkable. I took a short video but it's 12MB and greater than the allowable file size for the site. I clipped it down to less than 5MB but now it's only a couple of seconds long. I didn't hear anything unusual with my stethoscope, either on any of the rocker arms, the exhaust manifold, or the fuel pump. Held the rag down on each rocker arm and nothing changed. Oil pressure gauge reads 50 psi at idle. Seems like maybe there's no oil getting to the top end? Any other ideas?

 

Clogged oil passages possibly, add marvel mystery oil and run for a bit see if it cleans up.

if not and it’s that bad of a sound I would go ahead and pull intake. Could be old really gunked up lifters. All the pushrods should be rotating.

 

If the bypass in the oil pump is stuck open and dumping the oil back to the pan your gauge will not show 50 psi oil pressure. If the filter is plugged the oil pressure might increase but the relief valve in the filter will allow oil to circulate through the engine.
If there is an obstruction it might be cleared by running the pump with a bottle of Marvel, or two, added to the oil. If you don't care too much about the engine, run it at idle to do this. Otherwise, I suggest you remove the distributor and run the pump with a drill motor for a while and see what happens at the rocker shafts. The poor man's (my) version of this trick is two quarts of thin motor oil, two quarts of diesel fuel, a new filter, run at fast idle for fifteen minutes. It worked for me, but I did it in a whipped 360 that I was prepared to discard if it didn't.
Eric.

 

The lifters in an FE get their oil from a different passage than the rocker shafts. Get a quart of 50W oil and give the rockers pushrods and valve stems a good coating. Start it up and see if the noise quiets down or goes away. If it does best case the rocker shaft is plugged. Worse case #2 cam bearing is shot. And somewhere in between the oil passage in the block or head is plugged. But since the pushrods aren't rotating my guess is the rockers are worn out from lack of lubrication and there is no preload on the lifters.

 

Working with my uncle years ago there was a traveling salesman that brought his car in for an engine rebuild. He literally lived in this car on the road and had a clothes rod from window to window in the back seat. A station wagon if I recall. Never changed the oil, just added more when he needed it. Claimed it had one million miles on it. I've never seen so much sludge in my life. The only saving benefit was that he drove the car daily many miles. Before we tore the engine apart we put some kerosene in the oil and ran it from about 30 minutes. Kerosene is also called #1 diesel so similar to #2 diesel - it helped loosen things up so it was easier to scrape down but it smoked like crazy the entire 30 minutes. Luckily my uncles place out in the country well away from anyone else. Can't recall if the engine was salvageable but I think it was.

My uncle was a real character. Here's some info on Facebook about one particular race he won in 1967. Realizing that Super Modifieds run a V8 generally and a Super Midget only runs a 4 cylinder is what makes this story really impressive. Equally impressive is he bought this car used in 1953. Just thought I'd share.

https://www.facebook.com/SuperMidgetsWMRA/photos/pcb.3805824816159625/3805814692827304

 

Since you started the don't change your oil. This is a 351 Cleveland I took apart last summer. I think they just added oil and STP every now and then. The machine shop soaked it for three days before they got all that off. Sorry about hijacking your thread alecs.

 

I think that head made a guest appearance in a movie called THE BLOB

 

as others have suggested some MMO in the oil might help ive also had very good results using Lucas oil treatment for noisy lifters - its a bit more expensive than MMO but worked for me - good luck

 

I have to contribute to the oil sludge side of this post. This is a 2000 something BMW straight six. I didn't even try to clean it, that would have been a disaster.

It drove out like that. Haven't seen him since, but I did tell him to get rid of it before it's too late.

That was a year ago this week. He should be about due for service.

 

Holy crap. I have a '93 525i (inline six very similar to that one) with 328K miles and it doesn't have sludge! It's sad to see fine machinery so mistreated...
I'll bet neither of the VANOS units works.

 

My guess is a spring broke in one of the hydraulic lifters; it kinda depends on the mileage, plus it has been a while since I worked on an older V8, but I remember there was a way to replace and set cold hydraulic lifters with a calibrated wheel or eyeball it on the pulley in a FE to get the engine started with the lifters set close . Something like turn the motor to TDC compression and then set a couple specific lifters at quarter revolution and so on until you get them all. Then start it up and do the tightening specs to set each lifter for no-lash at random. There are books on it

Driving it is a kinda sort of deal, but it does sound like you have driven it a little

A mechanic is going to be costly I would think; pulling the intake and finding a mystery and other variables is not cheap. Maybe give it a go yourself. There seems to be a lot of experience here on this forum and that way you can know for sure what is going on, and it is not too difficult. I have trust difficulties with people I have not seen work.