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ANYONE HAVE A NOISY 2.9L VALVE TRAIN THEY WANT QUIET?


PetroleumJunkie412

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Ranger850

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@PetroleumJunkie412 it's snake oil, smoke&mirrors, trickery. Dont drink the Kool Aid, 2.9 are supposed to tick, its how you know its in time.
 

8thTon

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8thton...

You don't back it off after zero lash... you tighten it. And the technique I describe have been around for 60 maybe 70 years. Something to remember here... hydraulic lifters always have zero clearance. If there is clearance... it's gonna make noise.

In fact I can't think of a cam in block design with hydraulic lifters that doesn't preload hydraulic lifters. If they're non adjustable... preload is set by push rod length or perhaps shimming up the rocker stands if to much... and adjustable types... well you just adjust them.... tighter then zero lash.
You are correct and I was wrong - I was doing too many other things and not thinking about it properly. I still think this approach is simply guessing and setting the lash to a random value. The lifter may or may not have oil trapped in it, depending on how fast it leaks down after the supply of pressurized oil goes away. The factory method has you get a clearance from the fully extended spring in the lifter and then go in a set distance. But that won't help if there isn't enough oil flow to prevent air from getting trapped in the lifter (that lacks an exit hole), though it might make up for the excessive wear on the rocker tips.
 

8thTon

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Ok. @8thTon made me realize I have no idea what this. Here's my @Ranger850 moment.

What is this sorcery? Why use it? Will it cure my male pattern baldness?
It's just really thick oil - the standard band-aid for engines with too much clearance and resulting oil pressure problems (I wasn't serious).
 

PetroleumJunkie412

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It's just really thick oil - the standard band-aid for engines with too much clearance and resulting oil pressure problems (I wasn't serious).

Well. Now I know.












...jerk.
 

Uncle Gump

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You are correct and I was wrong - I was doing too many other things and not thinking about it properly. I still think this approach is simply guessing and setting the lash to a random value. The lifter may or may not have oil trapped in it, depending on how fast it leaks down after the supply of pressurized oil goes away. The factory method has you get a clearance from the fully extended spring in the lifter and then go in a set distance. But that won't help if there isn't enough oil flow to prevent air from getting trapped in the lifter (that lacks an exit hole), though it might make up for the excessive wear on the rocker tips.
It's all good... I have lost a bunch of information that I had stored in memory to make space for new interests. No harm no foul.

Now as far as this approach is "simply guessing".... I thinks it's more of just how they should get adjusted in the real world. I also think it should be done with the engine running... although it's a bit harder when the adjusting screw is moving up and down about a half inch in fairly rapidly.

Now I may get flamed for this... but I've heard this talk of no exit for oil on these hydraulic lifters a couple times lately. I simply don't believe this to be true. Every hydraulic lifter I've ever encountered indeed has an exit hole. Oil enters the lifter through a hole in the side of the lifter body that operates in a bore and has an oil galley feeding oil... and exits out a hole in the top. Which in fact feeds oil upward through the pushrod and splash lubricates the rockers.

Maybe one of you 2.9L experts (@PetroleumJunkie412 ) can clear this up for me.
 

PetroleumJunkie412

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It's all good... I have lost a bunch of information that I had stored in memory to make space for new interests. No harm no foul.

Now as far as this approach is "simply guessing".... I thinks it's more of just how they should get adjusted in the real world. I also think it should be done with the engine running... although it's a bit harder when the adjusting screw is moving up and down about a half inch in fairly rapidly.

Now I may get flamed for this... but I've heard this talk of no exit for oil on these hydraulic lifters a couple times lately. I simply don't believe this to be true. Every hydraulic lifter I've ever encountered indeed has an exit hole. Oil enters the lifter through a hole in the side of the lifter body that operates in a bore and has an oil galley feeding oil... and exits out a hole in the top. Which in fact feeds oil upward through the pushrod and splash lubricates the rockers.

Maybe one of you 2.9L experts (@PetroleumJunkie412 ) can clear this up for me.
I'm no expert lmfao. Just stubborn and like to give the 4.0 fanboys something to b*tch about.

So, the 2.9 lifter does have a bleed/feed hole in it. There is no hole in the pushrod, however.

The rocker shafts are hollow, and the center rocker pedestal has an oversized bolt hole in the center to allow oil to enter when it's pumped up from the cam bearings.

So, oil flows from the cam, into the rocker shaft, out holes in the shaft into the rocker arms, out of a weep hole in the rocker arms, and *supposed* to flow down the rod onto the lifter. If you have any garbage in your rocker shafts, oil flow stops.

The other problem is the rocker shaft springs cause the arms to bind up against the pedestals. This slows or stops flow depending on age.

It's a piss poor design, granted. It's why the spacers are what I'd consider a critical modification to make to the 2.9. Really wish that jackass didn't run off with my spare heads and rocker assemblies
 

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Talk about going against the norm... I'll stand corrected.

junky... I use to convert all my VW rocker shafts.... wavy washer and hair pin clips to solid bolt together/shim/spacer types as shown below.

Can you tap the ends of the rocker shaft then machine spacers/shims to convert these shaft and eliminate the springs? In my head it seems viable... but not always true.

 

Nez'sRanger

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All this talk about getting rid of the 2.9 tick... Great, but isn't that tick like THE defining feature of our 2.9s??? Why get rid of it! Haha!
 

Ranger850

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8thTon

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Can you use solid lifters from a 2.8 and adjust it as needed?
 

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The 2.8 solid lifters had issues with a lack of lubrication, so it probably wouldn't be a good idea. Sven Pruett's book states that you can use 302 solid lifters with a solid lifter camshaft, but there's some extra work involved, and he doesn't go into much detail.

Here is a link to someone that converted the stock 2.9 lifters to solid lifters, http://evilrobotarmy.blogspot.com/2012/08/fixing-fords-29-solid-lifter-conversion.html. And though the author of the article says he had no issues after several thousand miles, I've read that it's not good to run solid lifters on hydraulic lifter cams (solid lifters need a "ramp" on the cam lobes).
 

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cam bearings
 

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