Please help 2.9 valve adjustment

dragster557 · Feb 14, 2010

I bought an '89 bronco II with 10,000 miles on engine.I decided to adust valves and i am in a mess.Bumped engine over till both valves closed.Then loosened valves till they had play up and down.Took lash out and have triedfrom 1 1/2 turns back to 3/4 turns and motor runs like valves are too tight.Was fnie before i meesed with them except for a little tick.Please help.

BlackBII · Feb 15, 2010

Where is AllanD or Psycopete when you need them...

03ranger4x4 · Feb 15, 2010

for future reference...dont adjust the valves on a 2.9, the hydrulic lifters are, supposed to be anyway, self adjusting.

The valve tap is do to a poor oil flow design, and it isnt fixable by simply adjusting the valves.

dragster557 · Feb 15, 2010

Thanks for the help.

BRUTUS_T_HOG · Feb 15, 2010

properly torque the rocker arms back down. you are asking for disaster if you leave them loosened

03ranger4x4 · Feb 16, 2010

no problem, yeah i considered that when i had my bronco II, but after research i found that adjusting them does nothing for the valve tap, unless of course by chance you bought one that had valves that were already messed with and out of adjustment.

If your tap isnt too bad, unless you really want to rebuild an engine with 10,000 miles, just dont worry about it. Thats what i did after i realized there was no "cheap" fix for the tap itself, and since my bronco ran fine, i just accepted the tap as a sound that was normal for the engine lol. And for the whole time i had it, it never got any worse or better. It just stayed the same, ticking along, even after a good day of red lining every gear hahah

brianballard1983 · Mar 9, 2010

03ranger4x4 said:
for future reference...dont adjust the valves on a 2.9, the hydrulic lifters are, supposed to be anyway, self adjusting.

The valve tap is do to a poor oil flow design, and it isnt fixable by simply adjusting the valves.

how do you fix the oil flow? i been told there are now better cam bearings available

WTF · Mar 9, 2010

Run some thicker synthetic oil- that'll quiet it down a bit.

TheOne · Mar 9, 2010

after its been running for 5 min! LOL my truck ran 15w40 when it got to -40C here. lets just say there were some strange sounds coming from that engine!

chazzone · Mar 10, 2010

Man, I'd get that oil out of there quick. I run Rotella synthetic 5W-40 summer and winter, and I wouldn't put anything higher than 5W in a 2.9. That's just asking for problems, and there is nothing worse for the lifters since it will make it harder to push oil on start up on an already poor design.

sjr53 · Mar 10, 2010

Add an extra quart of oil to quiet the lifter noise. That is how I quieted my 88 which I barely use since I like the automatic in my 86 much more than the 5 spd in the 88.

mihulka3 · Jul 25, 2010

In process of setting up heads on my rebuilt 2.9. these engines make all kinds of funny noises. Poor design seems to be the norm in these tyoe of conversations. Ford made some good stuff and then? I debated on getting a 302 for my Ranger but did not want to turn a money pit into something worse.

adsm08 · Jul 25, 2010

chazzone said:
I wouldn't put anything higher than 5W in a 2.9. That's just asking for problems

You do know that Ford STILL says that for most temps and conditions 10-30 is the appropriate oil for a 2.9.

Not saying that a 5W isn't ok, just saying that 10 is.

swamprat · Jul 25, 2010

To help oil flow look at the tch pages for the free floating rockers, The pedastals can have the hole opened and holes in the shaft can be chamfered. Done this on a few and it helps

chazzone · Jul 26, 2010

adsm08 said:
You do know that Ford STILL says that for most temps and conditions 10-30 is the appropriate oil for a 2.9.

Not saying that a 5W isn't ok, just saying that 10 is.

Actually, Ford always recommended 5W-30 for these engines, and allowed 10W-30 for warm weather driving.

That is not to say that it is any where near optimum.

Use what you want in your truck, but if you knew anything about engine wear and oiling, you'd use the lowest "W" available in the weight recommended.

Once it is at operating temp, it's all the same, but on cold starts it makes a difference.

90% of engine wear occurs at start up, and the higher the vis at start up, the longer it takes to protect the parts.

Simple common sense.

Please help 2.9 valve adjustment

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