New truck owner

[joeglime]

Hello everyone,
My names Joe, & I live in Stillwater,Mn. I got my first truck just over a year ago (04 4x4 Ranger, manual 3.0) and I love it. Bought it down in North Carolina from a guy with a growing family. Body in great shape, very little rust, engine & trans work great. I’m not a car mechanic, but I’m pretty handy, and like to do as much maintenance as possible myself. I’ve been noticing a tapping sound coming from the upper part of the engine. I think I might have a bad lifter or rocker arms. Pulled the valve cover from the passenger side of the engine (the easy side) everything looked tight but could not pull the lifters more than about a half an inch before they hit the inside of the head. I can’t believe Mr. Ford would design an engine where you’d have to pull the heads just to change out the lifters. I only checked the one cylinder, but I’m worried they’re all like that and I’ll end up having to pull the heads. A friend suggests grinding away a bit of the aluminum head to make room for the lifter but I’d rather not modify it if I don’t have to. Any suggestions?

 

[pjtoledo]

remove the lower intake manifold to remove the lifters. you need to remove the "spider plate" and dog-bone alignment gizmos first.
do a visual inspection of the lifters first. the top cup plate should be in contact with or very close to the small wire retaining clip.
rotate the crank and watch the lifters, they should not collapse. the lift at the lifter is about 1/4"

edit: it's possible the rocker arm & fulcrum are worn enough to cause a ticking sound.

check your oil pressure with a real gauge, not the instrument panel gauge.

 

[joeglime]

remove the lower intake manifold to remove the lifters. you need to remove the "spider plate" and dog-bone alignment gizmos first.
do a visual inspection of the lifters first. the top cup plate should be in contact with or very close to the small wire retaining clip.
rotate the crank and watch the lifters, they should not collapse. the lift at the lifter is about 1/4"

edit: it's possible the rocker arm & fulcrum are worn enough to cause a ticking sound.

check your oil pressure with a real gauge, not the instrument panel gauge.

Sounds good. Passenger side rocker arms are all tight, just have to check the other side now. You’ve actually given me more information than ANYONE, mechanic or otherwise, has given me in the last six months. I’ve already installed an oil pressure gauge, so I know my oil pressure is good. Thanks for the help.