I'm sure this subject has been discussed here before but I would like to hear some opinions. Noisy lifter? My plan was to remove intake and pull lifters to cure this. Saturday I had a heart attack and I am to take it easy for a while. I thought I might try this seafoam in the oil and see if it will free it up. Maybe I should have drank some for my sticky lifter lol. Any thoughts or first hand experience with the stuff?

 

I recently had a similar stuck lifter in the 460 in my 1990 E-350 van. It only has 100K miles on it, but I don't drive it much, so I'm sure it was getting gummed up. I thought I was going to have to pull the engine apart, which would have been a huge pain in the van chassis with all of the 1990 plumbing.

Anyway, I read on this forum (in the engines section) about a few guys who had fixed the problem with Marvel Mystery Oil. They recommended pouring a full quart of MMO in there, driving it for 50 miles, and then changing the oil. I was doubtful, but figured I didn't have much to lose if the engine needed to come apart anyway.

To my surprise, it worked! I put in the MMO, fired it up, and drove off, clattering away. Barely 5 miles into the drive, the clattering stopped and it ran smooth and quiet. I drove it another 25 miles, parked it, and changed the oil a few days later. The engine seems fine now, with no obvious permanent damage. I put in a small amount (about a pint) of MMO with the fresh oil to continue de-gunking it. I'll probably change the oil again in six months.

I hope this helps.

Take care of that heart first. You can't work on your Ford from a hospital bed.

Bruce Johnson

 

at any given autoparts store there is an entire half of an aisle dedicated to: engine sealer, engine stop leak, heat gasket fixer, radiator sealer, gasket conditioner, engine quiet, transmission quiet, transmission stop leak, transmission smooth shift, transmission stop slip, wife quiet, wife mouth sealer, lol. and i think its just pretty rediculous and i stay away from that aisle and wouldnt touch it with a ten foot pole. on that same note my dad has a 2000 buick century which he had the same exact problem with his hydraulic lifter and he used the mmo and it worked. i however wouldve just spend 50 bucks and an afternoon of my time to replace all the lifters.

 

I agree; I'm generally a skeptic of "miracle in a bottle" claims. But....other guys on the forum had personally tried it, and it worked. I tried it and it worked. That says something. It's not going to fix a clattering valve train in every case, but it's not pure hype either. I think it's safe to say that if the engine isn't really badly varnished up, and you haven't driven it long with a stuck lifter, then adding an additive like Marvel Mystery Oil has a good chance of unsticking the lifter without damage.

If the stuck lifter had been in the 352 in my '67 F100, then, yeah, I might have just opened it up for good measure. But the amount of work needed to do that on the 460 in the van was staggering. I'm not even sure you can get the valve covers off without pulling the engine. It was well worth it to take a chance with the MMO fix.

 

I just put Seafoam in my truck the other day because I just got it running about two months ago after sitting for about three months. It was running rough and kept cutting off, and I knew the engine had been gummed up by old gas in the carburetor. So I put Seafoam in it and it seems like it runs pretty good now! I think I had a noisy lifter before I put Seafoam in it, but unfortunately I haven't checked to see if has gone away. It says on the can it will solve noisy lifters but I'm not sure.

 

Danger, they tell me it is not a good idea to put new lifters on an old cam or a new cam under old lifters. All should be replaced as a unit. I would like to hear what the old salts have to say about just replacing lifters.

Semper Fi

 

CougarJohn;

Yeah, in my experience it's generally a good idea to replace the cam and lifters together. Putting a new lifter on an old cam will usually be okay if you put some good pre-lube on the cam lobe. But there's always some risk in wiping out the cam lobe. Cam lobes are touchy; the hardened surface is thin. If they hit a dry spot or a chunk of abrasive dirt, it can lead to a failure during a new startup.

On an engine with stuck lifters, I wouldn't normally replace the lifters unless they were obviously damaged. The important thing is to take them apart, clean out the varnish from the inner walls, make sure the oil passage is open, and check the strength of the springs. Usually, the parts are fine once you clean the crusty gunk out of them.

That's the point of oil additives like Seafoam and Marvel Mystery Oil. They have some blend of solvents in them that softens the varnish enough to (hopefully) get the lifter piston moving again. Of course, the danger with the additives is with putting in too much and leaving it in too long. The gunk that's loosened up by the solvents floats around the engine and could clog up something else. Or the solvents could over-thin the oil in a critical spot, like a rod bearing or a cam lobe. That's why, if you put in a large quantity of the additive like I did, it's important to just drive it in one session, to get it all warmed and circulating, and them immediately change the oil and filter.

 

dont know what to tell you about that one john. when i did my f100 i replaced the cam, carb, intake, and lifters together. it was a total edelbrock package. on that buick i wouldve just replaced the lifters and not fix anything else until it breaks. but his wife drove it 37k miles without changing the oil, so its a ticking timebomb anyway. i'm not sure about wear patterns and whatnot, im no mechanic just a do it yourselfer.

 

I am going with that train of thought and will not replace them unless damaged.

 

i see all the cans of fixo blank and say bah and walk on.

however i have had good results using these products for very specific purpouses.

lucas fuel cleaner : mid 80's ford truck friends it did improve the engine when used regularly *it still needed a tune up eventually*

lucas tranny fixer : in my current tranny it is very very thick type f fluid the mechanic who installed my tranny failed to seal it and then used dextron fluid so until all the old stuff leaked out it firmed up my shift and it's thickness slowed the leak. *still needs leakes fixed*

lucas oil additive : added a bottle of this super thick stuff when i put in the sythetic oil. all told no idea if it did any thing but the little wheel display in pepboys made me think mabey *don't use it now just regular 10 30

seafoam in gas : had old old gas 8 - 9 months old in tank had alot of trouble starting it and keeping it going asked parts guy for some "old gas fixer crap" got seafoam it worked *cheaper than losing a full tank of gas at over 3.50 a gallon *

i am currently going to "flush" my oil using the seafoam the bottle says i can i figgure it is basically just denatured alkie which is a very good cleaning agent. i figgure the directions say drop in half a pint so i will do that change filter 2 - 3 times per half pint and see what happens.

if she explodes well then it was time for a rebuild any damn way and if it works i can get back to setting up my drive train behind the engine first i'll let you know either way.

 

I used the seafoam today but had a interesting experience. I used it in accordance with their video on their web site. First I put one third of the can in the oil and ran it till it was good and warm, no results in lifter noise. Now heres the interesting part. I put another third can in the carb while the engine was running just as the video instructs. It makes the truck smoke like a Messerschmit, What happened was I found a tremendous exhaust leak at the R/H manifold to exhaust pipe seal. This stuff is great for finding exhaust leaks. I am going to install new seal rings and see if the ticking is still present.

 

Yes, your experience reminds me of my old man back in the 1940's. After he tuned and greased the old flathead Chryslers and Fords, he would run them up and dump a few shotglasses of motor oil down the carb and stall them. I remember neighborhood oil fogs like you would not believe. No EPA back then. Good lube for the valve guides and top rings.
I still add four or five ounces of Marvel Oil to each full tank of gas on my '67 inline. Smoothes the idle.
My old man used the same stuff in the '40's. I wonder if it is the same formula?
Semper Fi

 

I ran the truck again after changing the manifold seal and the tick was still there but the exhaust was better. I pulled the passenger rocker cover and play with the rocker arms till I found one that was loose, pulled it off and found another bent pushrod. Straightened it like the last one and reinstalled and now she runs smooth and quiet with no ticking. I wish I could say the MMO or seafoam did the trick but I can't. I do think it has helped the lifters and general cleanliness of the oil. I am going to leave it for 50 miles or so and then change the oil and filter for the fourth time. I hope the pushrod God is smiling.

 

way to go on that description, too funny, I had a picture in my head of your motor spouting steam from every which hole like a tea kettle. LOL

 

I swear by mmo, I used it in every tank of lolead fuel in my plane, and some in the oil too. The 46 coupe had been designed for lead in the fuel but you can't get 80-90 octane as before so 100 lolead is a sub and can cause valve sticking. NOT with the MMO, no more probs after adding it. Just my 2 cents..