Changed the oil and now the engine ticks.

1988 4.0 auto. 214,000 KMs

Ok I just changed the oil and now the engine is ticking constantly, even after its fully warmed up. I don't think it did it right away though cause I remember listing to it at my dads place after the oil change and it sounded normal. I had a 35 KM drive home from my dads and the next morning it was ticking as I drove it around that day.

I had castrol 10w30 in it before the change and now it has vavoline 10w30 in it that I found on sale at Canadian Tire (for you Canadians). I had neglected the oil change so that old castrol had about 10,000KMs on it. There was some slight ticking under higher RPMS with the old oil if I'm remembering correctly.

So what do I do now? From what I have read its probly a sticky lifter? What exactly does that mean? Does it mean that its not pushing the valve open all the way or letting it close all the way?

I've read I should do an engine flush but I have a leaking rear main as far as I can tell so I'm not sure I want to thin it out at all or flush anything that might make it worse. I'm going to try to do the rear main in a month or 2 when I hopefully have some money. I think the front seal in the timing chain cover is leaking too.

Looking though the oil fill hole onto the rockers does look pretty nasty though, sludge on top of them.

My oil pressure gage isn't work so thats no help, its all the way to the right pointing out the passanger side. I guess its either a short or no connection or a bad sender.

I'm not saying to do this by no means but its up to you. You can put about half a quart of Kerosene in with you oil and IDLE ,NOT DRIVE!, IDLE! it for a few mins. and if it is in fact a stuck lifter it will free everything up. Be sure to drain the oil very well after letting it run for a few mins. I have used kerosene quiet a few times and had pretty good results. It will also clean any sludge from the oil pump, bearings. It won't hurt anything as long as your careful because kerosene is oil-based too.

Pretty much do an engine flush, thats what I was thinking except using a commercial flush instead. although I've heard of using kerosene or diesel in before.

I was talking to a friend though and he was wondering if the lifter was starting to collapse, as in it wasn't holding its pressure anymore? What are the chances of that and how do I tell what problem it is?

Why would the old oil keep it quite all or most of the time and the new oil doesn't?

If its collapsing I would need something that thickens it up right? While if its sticking I need to flush it.

Every few oil changes, I would add about 4 oz of Berryman B12 Chemtool and about 8 oz of Marvel Mystery Oil to the old oil, idle for five minutes, then change the oil. Usually ran Castrol or Quaker State.

My '89 Toyota truck had 190,000 miles on it and the valvetrain looked good as Day 1. The cam lobes looked like chrome.

Anyone else?

Is an engine flush going to agrivate my rear main leak?

Mine was ticking for years until I bought some of that Lucas oil additive from Canadian tire. Still ticks under high rpm but not nearly as bad.

Well I put in some seafoam and it didn't help at all.

Any other ideas? I'm not sure I want to try any other oil treatments now that I have one in there.

I'm guessing I should change the oil again and try something like the lucas oil stabilizer.

After that then what? Pull the head and take a look?

Spanky414 said:

Any other ideas? I'm not sure I want to try any other oil treatments now that I have one in there.

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you already added an OIL TREATMENT? what was it? that could be your problem.

Seafoam, I just mentioned it in the last post and I added it a couple days after the oil change and the ticking started.

So... you changed your oil, then you added the Seafoam, then the ticking started?

How much Seafoam did you put in?

he changed his oil, the ticking started, then he added seafoam?

is seafoam an OIL additive? i dont know the product but i thought it was an intake/upper cylinder "foam"..

if a ticking started AFTER an additive was added there's your big RED flag.

change it again use a different brand oil filter to eliminate some posibilities. and dont add any additives right away. one step at a time.

you don't mention if you changed the filter
If you used anything but a Mopar filter it could be your problem
I once had a '93 and when I tried to use a Fram filter during an oil change I got the same symptoms you describe
I was told by the Dealer that I should use a Mopar filter and when I changed it the ticking went away
I'm sure someone could explain why
something to do with design

'01 2dr Silverstone Metallic

Spanky414 said:

Is an engine flush going to agrivate my rear main leak?

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Very likely!

JoBo

Wow guys no offence intended but some of you need to reread my posts.

Here is the order of events.

Sunday night, I drain the old oil, castrol 10w30 and remove the filter, Canadian tire premium filter. Everything was fine prior to the removal of oil and filter.

Then I fill up with vavoline 10w30 oil and put on a new Canadian tire premium filter. Everything seemed fine and I drove home about 35kms.

Monday I noticed a pretty loud ticking sound from inside the jeep. Tuesday I read up on engine ticks from the top of the engine and wrote my problems here.

Later that day I tried some seafoam. I've seen it mentioned here before and it says it will clean rings, lifters, dirty parts and remove oil. It says to use 1/3 of a pint on the instruction sheet so thats what I used approx. It also says on the can that a whole can treats 9.5 liters, so I added a bit more later when it hadn't seemed to do anything, considering that jeep uses 6 liters.


So this morning (wed) I noticed that the ticking isn't so loud now from inside the cab, under the hood you still hear it pretty good but in the cab now all I'm hearing is a puffing sound maybe like and ehaust leak or something? the engine also rumbles a bit, like a small shake when accelerating.



So there is where I stand, I'm looking for work at the moment and need a dependable vehicle (it is, it still runs right) because I do trades work, carpentry and cabinet making and such. It really puts a damper on the old job search when its running like this. So I need to get this fixed.


What should my plan of action be? I'm thinking I'm going to do another oil and filter change. A friend of mine that works at Canadian tire thinks that the filters are made by fram, any other Canadians know about that? The last filter was Identical in make and model and worked fine but who knows.

What do I do if it still ticks after that? Maybe some lucas oil additive like Losungen tried? Thats an inhancer right? Ads a bit of thickness and improves lubrication as far as I know.

And if a lifter is sticky what exactly does that mean? Does that mean its not maintaining the valve lash properly cause it can't expand to its full hight so the pushrod is loose?

Get a working oil pressure gauge. The oil change may not have anything to do with your problem, but if it were me I would not drive it until I know it I have oil pressure or not.
Lets hope it's a crack in the exaust manifold that are known to crack and that makes a tick-tick at first.

Spanky414 said:

Wow guys no offence intended but some of you need to reread my posts.

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No offense taken but I don't believe you mentioned anything about the filter in your posts
some people actually do not change the filter at every oil change (go figure)
Canadian Tire Premium Oil Fiter?
That sounds highly suspicious to me

'01 2dr Silverstone Metallic

Well Its the best house brand one they carry, so I figured it was good. It was free with a jug of castrol 10w30 so thats why I used it. Plus the last one worked fine.

I figured a filter change was pretty much a given with an oil change but thats not the only thing I was talking about when I asked people to reread my posts. People were getting the whole order of things screwed up.

Ok so if a filter is bad it can lower your oil pressure right? So that could be causing my ticking because the lifter isn't keeping enough pressure on the pushrod?

If it is the filter I'm going to be pissed and bitch at Canadian tire.

Sounds like I do need to get that oil pressure gauge working right.

Is there a cheap filter I could get thats recommended? I have a walmart, Canadian tire, carquest and napa in my town.

Napa Gold oil filter is made by "WIX" excellent filter.

MG_43 said:

Napa Gold oil filter is made by "WIX" excellent filter.

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