90 Ranger Lifter noise....
 

Hey all, I am new to this forum as well as the problem I am gonna try to describe. I was given a 1990 Ford Ranger 2.3 Liter with 60,000 miles on it. When the truck was brought to me the lifters were extremely loud. The owner of the truck told me it sat for a while. I decided to do a tune up to the truck (oil and filter change plugs wires, ect.....)to see if that cured the problem. No such luck. Lifter noise was still there. At this point I remover the valve cover and started the engine. There was really no oil....not like there should be....laying in the head. After starting I noticed no oil to the lifters or cam. I brought the engine RPM's up to approx. 2000 and still no oil. I should of been splattered in the face with oil at that RPM but there was no oil. I did some reading on the possibility of oil pump being clogged on these engines due to oil pan gasket material getting stuck in the pick-up screen. So I removed the oil filter and started truck momentarily to see if there is any pressure and there is. There is no noise from the bottom end bearings at all everything is happening up top. My questions are....
1. Is there a possibility that the oil pickup screen is partially blocked?
2. I am assuming there is a pressure relief on the pump......could this be the problem?
3 Does anyone have a break down of the upper oiling system of this engine so I can see the possible problem spots?

I have kinda drawn a blank here and any help would be great.

I would start with the screen.

A trick I've used more than once in my life is to add a can of ATF to it, drive it for a day or two, then give it a complete oilchange. ATF is very high in detergents and might do the trick. Seafoam also comes to mind. I'll let some of the other oldhands chime in on this as views will vary.
Your truck may also have worn main bearings. My old '86 Ranger 2.9 had that problem and after doing the ATF with no results and having low oilpressure [my truck was gauged] I resorted to STP...3 cans in the summer and one in the winter. That did the trick for several years, including a trip to Houston and back.
Note!!!
I DO NOT recommend any oil additive [STP, Lucas, Slick50, ect.] in a healthy engine.

Is the oil presure warning light on????

I wouldn't run it with no oil to the top end!!!!

An additive that can clean the engine might help unblock a plugged passage, but if it doesn't work quickly, I think you will have to abandon additives, and tear into the engine. There should be an oil passage specifically for the lifters, there is a possibility that this passage is blocked. As far as how to unblock it, that depends on exactly where and why, but I would start with pulling the cam and lifters, and checking to see if the oil passage(s) that feed them have oil in them. If they do, then the oil is making it that far, otherwise, the blockage is somewhere in the head or engine block.

The oil gets to the head via a passage directly behind the sending unit. It goes vertically up to the top of the block and travels horizontally across the bottom of the head through a passage cut into the head and then travels up to the cam tower and lifters around the rearmost drivers side head bolt. It then travels through passages in the head to the lifters. It travels through the camshaft to lube the lobes and lifter followers.
If the system is working properly, you should have 'rustproofed' your engine compartment in about 2 seconds with the engine at idle and the cam cover removed... and would have had to add a quart or so to get the crankcase filled back up. It is an absolute drencher when it is working.
Removing the oil filter for a second or two just shows there was some oil in the pump when you cranked it over. You would have to maintain pressure for a while, and that is not feasible. Get a cheap gauge and connect to the sending unit passage... Remove the sender and connect the gauge. Betchur pressure is lacking terribly. I would think that your pickup is plugged with gasket material. Don't drive it any more until you get pressure or you will be buying a cam and lifters, if not a new head, crankshaft and bearings.
tom

Great info
 

I'm now a proud owner of a very clean low mileage 92' Ranger, due to this thread. I was shopping for a new pickup and found an ad that read; Clean 92' Ranger 67k miles needs engine work. When I first heard the truck run, I didn't want anything to due with it. The lifters were rattling so bad I was amazed the truck even ran. But after reading this thread, I bought it. Sure enough when i drained the oil, little pieces of rubber came out of the oil pan. Long story short. THANKS GUYS.

Welcome to FTE.

So in short, just what did you do after draining the oil & finding little pieces of black rubber, to become the proud owner of a low mileage 92 Ranger that you first didn't want anything to do with, after hearing it rattle when running?????

proud owner
 

I put the truck on jack stands and got the tires 6" off the ground. This allowed me to have enough clearance to get under and around the front end suspension. I then pulled the throttle body assy, valve cover, egr valve, starter and engine mount top nuts. Then I raised the engine by the front lifting bracket. Removed oil pan bolts and got oil pan dropped onto crossmember. Shifted oil pan over, then removed pickup tube. Hammered on spacer plate in the right spot to fold bottom parts out of the way. Only then was I able to remove oil pan. Found that the gasket had deteriorated back to its natural form. Small balls of rubber, which had totally blocked the pickup screen.
Another telltale sign for me buying this truck was the only oil leak on the engine was the oil pan gasket.

OK, good feed back & interesting find, so the root cause of all the noise, was the pan gasket deteriorating & the pieces of gasket stopping up the oil pump screen & starving the engine for lube.

Hopefully no Major damage was done while it was operated like this. How is it doing & sounding now????

runs great
 

The engine sounds solid, runs great. Now I'm hearing a slight exhaust rattle under the truck. LOL
By the way, I would like to add my diagnosis process. The oil pressure gauge was reading just above L\ when I got the truck. I grounded the signal wire connected to the oil pressure sender and found that the gauge would go to halfway between L & H. That told me it had low oil pressure, not a bad gauge.
Gauge reads halfway between L& H now.

Exhaust rattle is[may be] the converter heat shields - tack welds breaking. Get 4 steel screw-type hose clamps. Put one head to tail, to be able to reach around the converter. Put the clamp on the converter, rinse, repeat. It will outlast the truck.
tom

I think you need to get a new head or have your old one redone at this point. Mostly a new cam as well. There's been some damage done to the topend and cam from oil starvation, so you might as well fix it right. It soulds like you may have blocked oil passages.

Well Proper Image, how is it going with your top end noise trouble shoot????

It seems that from ZEEKFTW's post, that deteriorating oil pan gasket particles clogging up the oil pump screen, or a oil feed passage to the head, belongs on your suspect list.

Maybe pull the oilfilter, cut it open & have a look see at the filter media, to determine what it's trapped, or if it's clogged up & gone into bypass & passed some of these particles on to the top end & clogged something up.

Or maybe the pump pick up screen is just partly fouled up with debris & flow rate is down, in which case a pan drop, cleanup & new pan gasket might suffice, if the top end hasn't suffered to much wear because of lube starvation.

The 2.3 is one of Ford's better motors. I have a 2.9 that sounded like it was going to knock and rattle to pieces when I drove it. It has 141k on it(?). It also has a cracked head but the antifreeze was not getting into the oil. I just purchased a short block and a new pair of heads. I decided to dump some cash into it and keep it awhile longer. If I can keep the rust off of it I'll be happy.