engine ticking

[rangeron33s]

I bought and 88 ranger knowing it had a severe oil leak for 600. When talking to the guy he said it burns coolant due to a cracked head gasket and burns oil due to a bad valve cover gasket. I poped the hood and found the I could take hand fulls of oil sludge from around the valve cover. I said that's fine I have a spare 2.9 out of a 92. It eventually started to tick before I had the time to swap. I started using heavier weight oil. It would eventally get used to the oil and I would hear ticking again. Surprisingly I eventually got to a state of not being able to find heavier weight oil anyway. I pulled the motor expecting the tickng to be lifters and in the process of swopping rite now. When I pulled the radiator I found that it was clogged. I recently pulled the heads from the old motor and the head gaskets were perfectly fine. While looking at the heads I found that THE VALVE STEM SEALS HAD POPED OFF ON EVERY EXHAUST VALVE! I assume that was the ticking. And was definatley the reason of the smokey exhaust. This hole time I thought the motor had bad rings and lifters and head gaskets. All it needed was valve stem seals and a valve cover gasket. And a radiator flush. Just wanted to share this story. So if your motor has a tick and smokey exhaust CHECK THE STEM SEALS BEFORE DECIDING THE MOTOR IS SHOT!!!!!

 

[dinosore]

what color smoke was your exhaust puffing? white? black? thanks for sharing

 

[jhammel85]

Good to know. That's odd as I haven't seen that with the 2.9.

If you can post pictures, it'd be very helpful!

 

[rangeron33s]

I have a picture but I just got my smart fone last weekend and still figuring out how to use it and don't know how to upload from the fone. Any help on that? And the exhaust smoke was white with kind of a blueish tint

 

[rangeron33s]

I figured it out