sticky lifter.
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Junior User
Joined: Sep 2009
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sticky lifter.
i think i have a sticky lifter on the left side of my engine. i have a pretty distinct ticking sound, so my assumption is the lifter. i put some marvel oil addative in this morning and ran my truck probably 15mi. but it didnt seem to go away. should i give the addative more time to work? or should it have already worked?
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Joined: Jul 2005
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If it is a sticky lifter the oil additive may help but what I always do is change the oil and add one quart of transmission fluid in place of quart of oil. The tranny fluid is high detergent(higher than regular oil) 30 weight oil and drive it take it out for a good drive at highway speed and keep speeding up and letting off the gas this will help to work the oil up into the lifter, you don't have to hot rod it just accelerate and decelerate while driving. By around 500 miles it should have quit ticking and you can then change your oil and filter back to just regular oil.Your lifter didn't get sticky in just 15 miles so the marvel stuff may work just give it some time a couple hundred miles and if it doesn't work give the tranny fluid a shot, it's alot cheaper than rebuilding a motor. I had a freind who did this to his truck it had 150,000 on it when we did this and it went 300,000 miles when he finally sold the truck. Good luck and let me know how it works this info was given to me by my father a FORD mechanic for 25 years who knew his stuff about those old motors.
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Joined: Nov 2008
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From: Halifx Pa
If it is a sticky lifter the oil additive may help but what I always do is change the oil and add one quart of transmission fluid in place of quart of oil. The tranny fluid is high detergent(higher than regular oil) 30 weight oil and drive it take it out for a good drive at highway speed and keep speeding up and letting off the gas this will help to work the oil up into the lifter, you don't have to hot rod it just accelerate and decelerate while driving. By around 500 miles it should have quit ticking and you can then change your oil and filter back to just regular oil.Your lifter didn't get sticky in just 15 miles so the marvel stuff may work just give it some time a couple hundred miles and if it doesn't work give the tranny fluid a shot, it's alot cheaper than rebuilding a motor. I had a freind who did this to his truck it had 150,000 on it when we did this and it went 300,000 miles when he finally sold the truck. Good luck and let me know how it works this info was given to me by my father a FORD mechanic for 25 years who knew his stuff about those old motors.
I have had good results using this method too!
Post Fiend
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 8,261
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From: Big Sky Country
MMO, ATF, Risoline, diesel fuel, all will work, you generally need to give it more than 15 miles, shouldn't take anywhere near 500 miles though, if that's the case the lifter is probably collapsed.
Tuned
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 331
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You may actually have a bent pushrod. I went out one morning to start my truck, it cranked over, fired, and went CLANK and died. Cranked it again and it fired right up but had a noticeable tick. It didnt take long for it to get worse until finally one cylinder completely died. Turns out somehow the pushrod bent and finally broke, so the one valve wouldnt open and that cylinder wouldnt fire because it wasnt getting any gas. Popped the valve cover off, put in a new pushrod, good as new. Of course, you may just have a sticky lifter too... 
In which case regular old ATF works pretty good for cleaning gunk out of engines.
In which case regular old ATF works pretty good for cleaning gunk out of engines.
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so i cut off my catalytic converter today and guess what! the inner workings melted! so the opening for exhaust to escape was like 1/2in big. after i cut it off many of my mechanical problems ceased to exist! including, when i shut off my engine it went bum bum bum bum bum psssss. which i assume was exhaust backing up into the engine. aslo i got more power. but sadly i still have the tick.
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Senior User
Joined: Feb 2009
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From: Seattle & Surprise, AZ
Yeah, you may have a bent pushrod. One way to check them is to pull them out and roll them on a flat surface and see if they wobble...replace if needed. You might want to also replace the lifters with new one's. Sometimes the spring in them can stop working properly. You can pull the lifters out without having to pull the intake off. If you pull the lifters out I would also check the lifter channel for crud and clean if needed.
Good luck
Old Rusty Wrench
Good luck
Old Rusty Wrench
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