2.9 rebuild

[born ford]

Ok, just finished rebuilding my 2.9 with mild overhaul, i am getting alot of noise out of the top end . Sounds like a diesel! I cold set the valve lash as per the chilton manual but it sounds like the lifters just wont pump up . motor sounds good through out idles fine and revs fine. its pumping oil like mad from the rockers so i know the pressure is good. what could be the issue?
this is a list of what i did while it was apart:cleaned it(alot of sludge) one bad head and the other checked out good, bought a new head. new gaskets all around,had some collapsed liters so threw a new set of lifters in on the old cam, I know i should not do that but im on a budget,and needed my truck back.

 

[adsm08]

It's not so bad if you throw new lifters to the old cam.

Did you replace the cam bearings?

 

[RonD]

If it's pumping oil up the push rods and out of the rockers then lifters are doing fine.

Were the old lifters and new ones the same height?
Part numbers are good but not always right when people are involved

With engine off check the closed valve push rods for tightness, should barely be able to turn them, rotate crank and check the others.

 

[adsm08]

If it's pumping oil up the push rods and out of the rockers then lifters are doing fine.

This is a good point as well.

You should be running break in oil and have done a break in cycle on the cam before trying to run it though. I've never had to do one myself, but IIRC it's 2500 RPM for 30 minutes.


I have also heard of new lifters not pumping up with old cam bearings.

 

[born ford]

no did not replace cam bearings motor had good oil pressure before i took it apart so did not think i needed to. I had 2 stuck lifters before i put the new ones in. the push rods in the motor are solid and not hollow they do not push oil, the oil comes out of the rocker arm shaft. and it is coming out well. is there a break in for lifters? I dont want to damage anything running it like this. Ive never done just lifters always a full overhaul. Thanks for the replies I would really like to figure this out.Ive rebuilt alot of ford v-8 but this is my first v-6 teardown.

 

[RonD]

I do see that the center bolt for the rocker tower/shaft has an oil passage in the head, never knew that.
So solid push rod, hmmm.

I would still pull the valve covers and check each push rod for tightness, with it's valve closed.
From looking at this setup the rocker arm shaft's oil passages can get restricted, this would cause rocker arm wear at the valve and push rod ends.
The wear over time would cause loose push rod and ticking.
New head gasket added a bit of height as well.

Not sure there would be a cheap fix for that, might be able to get a couple of rocker arm assemblies from a wrecker and mix and match worn and unworn rockers.

Machining the bottom of the 3 towers on each rocker assembly would lower all the rockers at once, you would need to use a feeler gauge and find the largest "gap" and add a bit to that to get the amount to take off each assembly.
We are not taking alot of material removed here, so lifters wouldn't be bottomed out.

Finding adjustable rockers, like on the 2.8l, would be great but didn't see any available for the 2.9l, and they would probably be expensive in any case.

 

[born ford]

All the 2.9s ive ever seen have adjustable rockers they are the same rockers and push tubes that are in the 2.8 its all interchangeable even put rocker arm assemblies on a 4.0 if you really needed to.

 

[RonD]

Adjustable rockers would be great, but my 4.0l doesn't have them, and from what I have read about the 2.9l, they didn't either.
One of the complaints about the 2.9l was the ticking noise they always made after they got some miles on them, and lower oil pressure, having adjustable rockers would make that a non-complaint.

 

[born ford]

Ive worked on 10 or so 2.9 engines in my life 3 of which were my trucks, they have all had adjustable rockers, it actually has a section in the chilton on how to adjust them which i did. zero lash at tdc on each cylinder, then one and a half turns. If you want adjustable rockers go tho the bone yard and get some off a 2.8 or 2.9 they are the same, I have heard of a few guys having to do this after putting a bigger cam in the 4.0 afterall its just a bored and stroked 2.9 with no distributor . the big downfall of the 2.9 is the horrible oiling system they had in them, the 2.8 didnt seem to care because it has solid lifters, but it didnt work to well in the 2.9. Thanks again ron for the help im gonna try and hand pump the lifters with the pushrods with the rockers off and see if it helps.then reset the valve lash.

 

[librum]

Sorry for the delay in posting, I had to find the url.

I had the same issue, a very noisy diesel sounding top end. After much grief and $$$ (heads, valves, etc), I discovered that the lifters were not working correctly. I told myself to live with it, and then the bogging down started. Searching the web, I found an url that explained how to convert to solid lifters.

http://evilrobotarmy.blogspot.com/2012/08/fixing-fords-29-solid-lifter-conversion.html

I did not use the Grainger washers in the url, but found similar, a bit thicker. I googled the Grainger part number to got the thickness and took that to NAPA.

There is a sound difference. It now sounds like somebody lightly strumming fingernails on wood, but barely noticeable, and only on start-up, and very light. Truth be told, it might just be 'standard' start-up noise.

It seems to have worked, it is about 13k later.

 

[born ford]

Thanks for the reply I have read that post and thought about doing it but opted for brand new lifters thinking it would do it but I guess not. Unfortunately thats a $120 mistake and another teardown on the topend but if I cant get it right I guess itll have to be done. I wonder if the solid 2.8 lifters will work? probably beat the cam to death huh?. I have a 2.8 in my other truck and just cant kill it thought I blew it up a number of times haha

 

[librum]

The author of the post said the 2.8 lifters were 'problematic'. I did not dig further in that direction. Hmmm... I do not know if it would 'beat the cam to death' or not. A good question, but one I do not care to experiment with (sad smile)

 

[Wrxpulse]

I'm the one who sorted out the washer solid-lifter conversion and wrote that blog post and I'm glad to see its working for others. There are a few issues with 2.8 lifters vs 2.9. Napa lists a very slight difference in overall diameter, a few thousandths if I recall. There is also the concern of trying to seat new lifters to an old cam. In the end I decided it would be safer to just shim the existing, already worn-in lifters instead.

regards,
-Jack