I got my dad's 390 running in his 1973 F-350 pickup but every now and then I get a pretty good lifter tick out of it. The bad thing is some time it will do it and other times it wont.

When I rebuilt the engine I put a new cam and lifter set in and use a moly lube on the lobes. I ran the engine at 2000 RPM for 30 minutes to get the cam and lifters broke in. The engine has 5-10 PSI at idle and 35 PSI at 3000 RPM's with straight 30 weight oil.

I have tired running some ATF through the engine which seemed to help at the time. I put some engine flush in which I got at a local Napa and ran that for 30 minutes. The lifters were ticking when I started and after 30 minutes they were nice and quite so I dumped the oil and filter and put 30 weight back in and on startup the lifter tick was back. Right now I have some oil treatment I purchased at Napa which is suppose to help sticky lifters. At times it seems to help and other times the noise is back.

Of course the day I pulled the valve covers to see which cylinder it was, the engine ran great. Is there anything else I can do or am I going to have to replace the lifters?

Jeff

 

jeff, did you install new pushrods? What I thought was a lifter in my 352 turned out to be a worn pushrod. The tick would come and go but mainly after it was warmed up. Just a thought.

 

I did not change the push rods just the cam and lifters.

Jeff

 

Get one of those cheap stethoscopes from auto supply place and listen around the engine while its runnig. i found mine was fuel pump....

 

A weak fuel pump will also give you a tick that sounds like a lifter.

 

I tore the engine apart today and number 1 and number 5 cylinders both had a lifter stuck which allowed a lot of free play in the push rod/rocker arm. As a precaution as I had the rockers and push rods removed I changed all lifters and installed new ones purchased from my local Napa. I figured if two stuck then the rest were more than likely going to do the same at some point.

I tell you what, when the engine is installed in a pickup installing new lifters with the intake manifold on is a big pain in the you know what. Getting the lifters out was no problem, getting them back in was the fun part, especially on the left hand side as the brake booster was right in the way.

Jeff

 

Way to go Jeff! I assume it is nice and quiet now ? May I ask how much you had to spend for the complete set of lifters and pushrods?

 

I don't know on the quite part yet as I took the radiator out yesterday to have the tanks re-sealed and get the core rodded out so I have not been able to start the pickup. I still have a water pump leak to attend to next but I quit after the lifter install, figure I might as well quit while I was a head. It took a little over 5 hours to swap out the lifters and put the top end back together. The worse part of it, only 6 lifters are a real pain to get to,the rest come out and go in quick and easy.

I still re-used my old push rods and the lifters set me back $85.00 and some change at my local Napa. I just rebuilt the engine in December with a master kit purchased at Auto-zone which came with a new cam and lifter set. The lifters made it 100 miles, hopefully the cam along with the rest of the internal parts will be good to go for the long haul.

I must have got a bad batch of parts as they were all name brand items, sealed power cam and lifters, hastings rings, clevitte bearings and fel-pro gaskets.

Jeff

 

I have made lifters stop ticking by taking the air filter off so you have access to the throttle. Get High Detergent automatic transmission fluid, bring the engine up to a very high idle then pour the automatic transmission fluid down the carb, a slow steady stream (not to much). Do not let the engine stop keep the idle up and just keep pouring tell the lifter is unstuck. Have done this several times on old FE motors never heard the lifter again. Of course if the lifter is broke this will not fix it, it will free up stuck ones.

 

Can someone please explain to me how dumping fluid down the intake will free a lifter? I just don't see a direct path between the two. I would like a little more info on this as it has caught my attention, I am not ruling that out but at this point I don't see how the two are connected.

Jeff

 

I am curious about that myself. Makes no sense to me.

 

I'm interested too. Sounds like a neat trick...if I knew how it worked.

 

Maybe stuck valves. I have used ATF in the crankcase to free stuck lifters. It really does work on old, gummed up engines.

So you have not noticed any unusual wear on the AZ lifters? Did you happen to notice if the cam lobes were worn? Having trouble this soon would have me saying WTF!?!

 

When this is done the engine is going to put out allot of smoke, so do this in a very well vented area. The valve train is going to basically turn into a steam room of automatic transmission fumes thus cleaning the stuck lifter off and freeing it up. My father taught this to me along time ago. Did it work every time No, Did it free up some stuck lifters Yes. It's worth a try before you take the engine apart to replace the lifter. Most of the time we only would replace the one stuck lifter, if the engine needed new lifters most of the time it needed more than just lifters.

 

That makes sense. Good trick to remember for sure!