2.9L v6 ticking at start up ?

1986fordranger · Feb 11, 2012

hey yall , i have been running my donor vehicle a 1989 ford ranger with the 2.9L v6 in it around my property hauling dirt and such , and ever since i
bought it it would tick at first start up and tick for about 1-2 minutes and then for the most part goe away , any ideas of what would make it tick ? , i've herd abit about oil passages in the upper end of the engine cloging and starving the upper end parts of oil and makeing them tick on the north american 2.9L V6s , it seems to run well once its warmed up , just wondering what it is and if its terminal to the engine , thanks for any advise on this topic

dvsj67 · Feb 11, 2012

Sounds like it time for a valve adjustment!

Hahnsb2 · Feb 11, 2012

Be thankful it only ticks at start-up and don't worry about it.

Nate W. · Feb 11, 2012

Mine does the exact same thing. Does yours tick when bogging down? Like going up a steep hill? 2.9's are famous for ticking.. :dunno:

Z3CHYD · Feb 11, 2012

my 2.9 only ticks for a few seconds after startup. otherwise i have a loud injector click I mistook for a lifter lol

1986fordranger · Feb 11, 2012

Hahnsb2 said:
Be thankful it only ticks at start-up and don't worry about it.

yup , good advise

Nate W. said:
Mine does the exact same thing. Does yours tick when bogging down? Like going up a steep hill? 2.9's are famous for ticking..

mine seems to only tick at start up and goes away , doen't seem to tick at all when driveing or atleast from what i can here from inside the cab , thanks for the reply

Z3CHYD said:
my 2.9 only ticks for a few seconds after startup. otherwise i have a loud injector click I mistook for a lifter lol

jrpdash9 · Feb 11, 2012

nothing to much to worry about as long as it dont tick all the time. start up is normal. my rebuilt 2.9 in my 88 b2 does it

Gary101386 · Feb 12, 2012

mine did that until i did a complete tune up... not sure why...

josh_cloud · Feb 13, 2012

what got rid of it for me was going to a lighter oil, running seafoam, and pulling the rocker arms and removing the plugged up sludge in them. these engines are bad about creating sludge

RustedRanger · Feb 13, 2012

For about the first year after getting mine it had a bad lifter(s) tick at idle and as I was going through fixing things it kept running very rich and getting gas in the oil so I changed the oil a bunch of times. Since then I switched to 15W40 and the tick is pretty well gone. I think all the gas in the oil must have cleaned the oil passages out...but I wouldn't recommend doing that on purpose lol BTW....last year when I changed the valve cover gaskets I expected the heads to be sludged up....it was very clean. I also use Lucas when I can afford it.

xlt88 · Feb 18, 2012

Mine does the same thing but much louder on long freeway drive. I read about it that the ticking is due to poor oil circulation design.

Backcountry_Ranger · Feb 18, 2012

The best way to keep a 2.9 from ticking is to not start it.

Jim2 · Feb 22, 2012

I just did the heads on mine, adjusted all the valves to exactly "1 1/2 turns past zero lash" as instructed, but the tick was still there at start up.. it went away after about a minute..

A friend told me that it was just the hydraulic lifters needed to get pumped up.

4.0B2 · Feb 22, 2012

yeah, don't worry to much about it. our explorer (4.0) does that.. my 2.9 did that, even after a motor rebuild. my 4.0 in my b2 now doesn't... idk. kinda worries me that it doesn't tick! lol

danger-ranger86 · Feb 29, 2012

no worry's my 86 does the same thing. an my dads 88 also does it too just a lil louder.

2.9L v6 ticking at start up ?

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