1988 2.9 lifter tick

[Dirt]

A few weeks ago my truck has started to tick at any engine speed. Letting it warm up doesn't help. It hasn't run much for the past 3 months due to an electrical issue causing severe misfires on cylinders 5, 3 and 6. That problem is now resolved and I'm looking for help on this. I know 2.9's are notorious for oiling issues and eating lifters. I first noticed the tick when troubleshooting a few weeks ago. The oil is dirty and needs to be changed. My questions are: How long until this starts hurting the engine? Is there a cleaner or additive I can put in my next oil change to help this? And if all else fails how hard is it to do lifters? Things look pretty well squeezed into the engine bay. Thank you to all who take the time to respond.

 

[Dirtman]

Use a zinc (zddp) additve. 2.9s need zinc to lube the cam and lifters but its no longer used in any significant amount in modern engine oil due to environmental concerns.

 

[19Walt93]

An oil change is cheap and easy, if the oil is badly diluted or broken down it might aggravate a lifter noise. The lifters don't come out unless the heads are removed.

 

[sheep herder]

They all do that.

 

[Jazzer]

I agree it’s very very common, but my ‘87 2.9 at almost 100k doesn’t make a peep. Musta got lucky.

-Jazzer

 

[gaz]

Dirt,

Definitely look at your oil. If low or beyond used, correct that but also pull your rocker arms disassemble them and thouroughly clean. The oiling can be improved by drilling the oiling passeges to the next size larger hole, both on the rockers and rocker arms.

When reinstalling you have the opertunity to insure that your lifter preload is properly set (this may very well be the reason for the added noise).

With good oil at the proper level, clean components and a correctly adjusted valve train, you will not have this noise without some other fault being present

 

[Cees Klumper]

I did an oil change on mine two weeks ago. Almost immediately, it developed a bad lifter tick, sometimes I could hear 3 of them at a time. Drained the oil and put in a different brand, and slightly different spec (5W30 instead of 10W40) and the tick was gone. Ironically, I had used that same oil in my son's 1986 300ZX and that, too, quickjly developed a lifter tick that went away after I swapped it with new different oil.
The oil that caused both cars to have the lifter ticking pretty badly, was Castrol GTX High Mileage 10W40.
With the new oil (Mobil 1 5W30), the engine in my Bronco II is once again whisper quiet (except sometimes on cold start, but that's normal and goes away quickly).

 

[Jazzer]

When I bought my ‘87 many moons ago, I immediately changed the oil to Mobil 1 full synthetic 5W30. Maybe that’s got something to do with it.

-Jazzer

 

[ecgreen]

When I bought my ‘87 many moons ago, I immediately changed the oil to Mobil 1 full synthetic 5W30. Maybe that’s got something to do with it.

-Jazzer

Didnt know that was a thing to do with these older engines.

Anybody else use synthetic?

 

[MikeG]

Coming up on the 345,000 mile change on my Mazda 3. When it was under warranty, I changed it every 7,500 miles with 'regular' Mobile 1. As soon as it got out of warranty, it got the 'extended' version or whatever they call it, and it's been changed every 15,000 miles since. I drive enough that it is changed at least once a year, even at the 15,000 mile interval, and some years, twice.

The 97 B4000 just gets 'regular' Mobile 1. It may not get changed for several years at a time as I don't drive it much.... yeah I know.... but ......

 

[Jazzer]

I’ve been using a 10k mile oil change schedule in my ‘07 2.3 (from after the initial 1k break in) with Mobile1, now at 134k on the clock. Engine uses 1/5 of a quart between oil changes. Good enough.

I’m going to a 7.5k change interval now.

-Jazzer

 

[Dirtman]

Good god people... change your freaking oil more!

 

[Dirt]

Thanks to all who replied. I'll try running the synthetic stuff and if that doesn't work i'll look deeper into it.