Hi all! New here and I need some advice! I just finished rebuilding a 2.9 for a friends 90 Ranger and still get the lifter noise. He had a short block built by a local company and I finished the rest. Everything inside the engine is new (lifters, cam, crank, pistons, oil pump, pushrods), the only parts reused are the rocker arms and the valves. I have been through the procedure to adjust the valve lash on the hydraulic engines and tried every trick I can think of, still some rattle on decel and a small amount at idle. I am at an end and my fried (who is paying for my time) is becoming concerned! I understand that these engines make some lifter noise but my friend thinks it is way to much. Any advice? I really don't want to disassemble the complete engine to prove to him that it just makes this noise. Thanks for any help!

Chuck.

 

When they cleaned the block did they get the oil passages to the lifters real clean?If not that might be your problm.The lifter are known to tick even after being replaced.{Fords better idea}It also might be a fual rail tic this will start after you remove it and reinstallit.{something to do with a improper groung}
Put a real oil pressuer guage on it and make sure the pump is working right.JMOs

 

I'm not sure if 2.9 has same problem as my 91 4.0, but my engine sounds like rod bearing gone and it's the fuel rail. You can feel the metallic tap by holding one of the braided fuel lines just above d.s. valve cover. There is also a service bulletin on the 4.0=camshaft endplay problem. Good luck.

 

Thanks for the advice! I have adjusted the rocker arms ten different times to make sure they were set correctly and I still have the same noise. The gauge idea sounds good, I'll try that. My thought is that the company that rebuilt the short block left the block dirty, although I can get good (well what seems like good) pressure to the lifter. On one of the adjustment tries I backed the rockers completely off and turned over the engine to get pressure to the lifters. After I had finished and started the engine it didn't make any noise for a few minutes then it sounded like they were slowly losing pressure. I just feel like I am getting nowhere .

Chuck.

 

The 2.9 is a solid lifter engine so there will be lifter noise to some degree. Unless it is excessive I would think there is no problem and you said you hac\ve had it all redone and adjusted. Solid lifters will make a tapping sound where hydraulic lifters will not.. Hope that helps.

 

The 2.8 has the solid lifters.The 2.9 are hydraulic.

 

I just rebuilt my 2.9 and yes I do get light tapping (plus one louder noise which
I hope isn't a collapsed lifter or bad cam contact)
I adjusted mine by backing out the adjuster nut 'till the pushrod has slack,
then tighten the adjuster nut 1.5 turns in.

Cheers, JT

 

This may sound like a crack answer but run a can of engine cleaner thru it for a week, then give it a oil change. I do this once every 6 months on my 2.9L (with 301,000 km's on it) and it shuts the lifters up nicely.

 

Also if you have a lot of miles on it 150k+ it wouldn't be a bad idea to run a slightly heavier weight oil like 20w-50, it'll quite down those lifters a little and help with compression.

 

Did they re-use lifters when they rebuilt the short block? If they did, they need to be strung up by their...

Never mind. Get a new set of lifters and you'll be ok.

 

Not always. 2.9's often make lifter noise, even with new lifters. Case in point: my own '89. I replaced the cracked heads, and while I was in there I put brand new lifters from Napa in it. I inspected and cleaned the lifter oil passages (as well as I could), dropped the pan and pulled the oil pump, drilled out and chamfered the oil passage up through the block to the filter adapter, chamfered and smoothed out the edges of the oil passages on the adapter, took apart the pump, inspected, cleaned and smoothed the edges of the rotors and the housing, and shimmed the pressure relief spring. One of the new lifters seemed to be a little sticky when I put the pushrods back in, but I didn't want to pull the head back off to get the lifter back out and I figured it would be fine when it pumped up. The end result of all this? 2.9 lifter noise that comes and goes. Great oil pressure, but the lifters still make noise on and off. Sometimes it's just the one, sometimes several or all of them. Sometimes they're noisy on cold start-up, and then quiet down after a minute or so, sometimes they make noise after going at hiway speeds for a while. I'm thinking about looking for a solid lifter cam for the thing, I'm tired of this already. -TD

 

I just put new lifters in my 87 ranger 2.9l and it still tickes. The 2.9l have an oiling problem some of the motors dont get enough oil to the lifters because the lifter passage gets stoped up. Also dont go to hydrolic lifters to quiten the motor it may make it worst in my case it did.

 

The biggest problem with the lifter lubrication is all the oil has to go around the 2 centre camshaft bearings, and the passages is quite small. Enlarging the oil galley above the camshaft is only part of the answer. Perhaps adding passages under the front and rear camshaft bearings would help, but that's a bit of tricky work.

 

ROCKER ARM SHAFT CLOGGED UP!!!

 

No, not the rocker arm shafts. When I put the new heads on mine, I also put on new rocker arm shafts along with the new lifters. Still rattles. It wasn't too bad for a while, but now with the colder weather I've had to switch to a lighter weight oil, so it sounds worse than ever. I just hope it holds together til I get the new motor done! -TD