1996 2.3 lifter tick

BRL86 · Oct 7, 2018

I’m the new owner of a 1996 ranger 2.3 5 speed truck. It has 187k miles and I’ll Start with what I did to it. I changed the spark plugs and wires, new radiator, new A/C parts, brakes and tires, and changed the spring hangers. I can’t get a lifter to quit ticking. I believe its a lifter, its a light tapping sound that sounds like a watch tick. It’s very very very intermittent, the only common way I can get it is if I run very high RPM, it will appear, but if I keep the RPM’s low, it is quiet. I changed the oil and it appeared when I fired it up again. I have run 1qt ATF and 4 qt’s 5w30, drove it for 60 miles and put fresh oil in. Still the same. I have driven it around 800 miles on that fresh oil, still comes and goes. I just dumped in some Seafoam into the crankcase, have about 50 miles with that in there, still hear it sometimes. It seems to be slowly going away but it can be heard every now and then. Some things to note, when I changed the oil the first time, the oil filter was wrong, it wasn’t an FL-1A, but a smaller one like a FL-420 something, bout the size of a Campbell’s soup can, instead of the bigger FL-1A. The truck runs very strong, will do 85 or so miles an hour with AC blowing, and feels like it has much more left. I can’t notice anything other than the tick, it runs cool, gets 28 MPG, and idles very smoothly/ quietly.

Has anyone had this before? Could it be a header or just one sticky lifter? It can’t be oil pressure because at high RPM/ redline, the pressure is the highest, but it doesn’t tick at idle.

Thank you in Advance,

Brad

Ranger850 · Oct 7, 2018

I had an 83 with a tick. My uncle rebuilt the motor and around 75k it started ticking again. I just got used to it.

tomw · Oct 8, 2018

With all the salt they use in Indy, I am almost surprised it is still on the road.

You have roller cam followers that may have an intermittent problem. Each follower has a bearing and a roller that spins as it rubs against the cam lobes. I guess it's possible the bearing on one is having slight problems.
Another alternative is a follower support (lifter at one end) that has a sticky check valve.
The cure for that is to find the noisy one and replace it with another, or replace them all. It would be difficult to do the first, as the oil is a hurricane under the cam cover when the engine is running.
You could remove all the followers, pull the supports, and disassemble and clean each one individually. {Do not mix up the parts.} You might find one of the check valves with excessive wear(worn groove in the disc, worn groove in the check ball) which you could then replace. You could source another set of followers from a boneyard. What are the odds you'd get another set with a noisy support? Dunno.
tom

BRL86 · Oct 8, 2018

I think before I do that, I want to take off my accessory drive belt and see what noises are there, then maybe test my timing belt tensioner, it really sounds like it’s in the front, so either a cylinder one lifter or tensioner or pully. But idk if something like that would tick. Any one Have a pully tick?

1996 2.3 lifter tick

BRL86

New Member

Ranger850

Doesn't get Sarcasm . . .

tomw

Well-Known Member

BRL86

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