Valve Tap?

My Great 8

My Great 8

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Looking for a little help with this problem. My 93 Mark just turned 164000 miles. My 21 year old son drives it exclusively. Lately it has a valve tap that sounds like it's coming from under the driver's side valve cover. He has a 1 mile round trip commute to work. It has not been run on the highway very much. I just ran it for about 10 miles at 70 mph. It runs perfectly, idles perfectly, and has plenty of power. When I got home, it went away. After idling for about a minute, it started to hear it faintly. The oil I use is semi synthetic 5W30 and I put a quart of Lucas in the oil. Presently, the oil has about 400 miles on it. The oil light goes out right away during cold starts and the car goes 3000 miles without losing a drop of oil. Do I have a weak oil pump? Your opinions are greatly appreciated!!
 
if it sounds like a lifter tick, most of the time its a worn valve guild. they will run forever with the tick.
 
It's more than a slight tick. It's more on the loud side. I have Flowmaster 40's on it and you can hear it over the drone of the exhaust. Why would it go away at highway speeds and come back at idle? If it is a valve guide, would it be best to have all of them done? I don't plan on selling it. I offered to help my Son buy a new car and he said "no way!! I love this car!"
 
PCV valve has recently been replaced. The inside of the engine is real clean. Diesel Dan did my oil pan gasket and oil adapter gasket recently. I believe the car has been well maintained as I bought it from Jamie about 2 years ago. After racking up about 40000 miles in that time, this is the only problem I have ever had with it. I could understand if it was abused most of it's life but it doesn't appear to have been.
 
Semi synthetic , I only use mobil one and the only time she ever taps the message center is screaming at me to change oil now.
I'm gonna guess ..... Knock sensor.
 
I appreciate your thought but I think the knock sensor retards the timing to eliminate spark knock or "ping". This is something that is constantly there and increases with the rpms. I am thinking valve guide or low oil pressure. I will find out tomorrow and update this post. Once again, everyone's opinions are appreciated. Thanks guys!
 
My Great 8 said:
The oil I use is semi synthetic 5W30 and I put a quart of Lucas in the oil.
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Lucas Oil Stabilizer? Was the tick present before you started adding it to your oil? That stuff has been proven to cause some trouble due to its tendency to cause aeration in the oil. There was a writeup on it at BITOG some time back.
 
racecougar said:
Lucas Oil Stabilizer? Was the tick present before you started adding it to your oil? That stuff has been proven to cause some trouble due to its tendency to cause aeration in the oil. There was a writeup on it at BITOG some time back.
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Wow. Really? I've been using Lucas in all my vehicles for the past decade with no issues. I'll have to read up on this.
 
Just to add to this, what is so wrong with your oil that it needs stabilizing, or anything else added to it for that matter? LOS is mostly a 60 grade base stock lubricant with little to no additives. It does nothing more than thicken the oil you are mixing it with, while also diluting the add pack. Why would you want to reduce the percentage of additives in the lubricant when replacing one quart of normal oil with LOS? If you need a heavier oil weight, then just run a heavier oil weight. If you're running a quality oil, there is no reason to add anything to it.
 
racecougar said:
Just to add to this, what is so wrong with your oil that it needs stabilizing, or anything else added to it for that matter? LOS is mostly a 60 grade base stock lubricant with little to no additives. It does nothing more than thicken the oil you are mixing it with, while also diluting the add pack. Why would you want to reduce the percentage of additives in the lubricant when replacing one quart of normal oil with LOS? If you need a heavier oil weight, then just run a heavier oil weight. If you're running a quality oil, there is no reason to add anything to it.
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Amen
 
Biggest reason I use the Lucas is because most of the vehicles I've owned in the past 20 years have usually ended up with well over 200k miles on them. I use it as a safety precaution. On a couple of my old cars, I would start using the Lucas when I started hearing valve clatter or other "odd" noises from the engine. In most cases, the Lucas would eliminate the noises and the engine would run fine as long as I owned it. The '97 LSC has 209k miles on it now. I use 5w20 oil and I've recently started using Lucas every other oil change just as a precaution. I've never had any problems with it. So I just don't fix it if it ain't broke. And I just don't have the time, energy, or money to rebuild engines every other weekend like I did when I was 25:) So I try to do everything I can to keep then engines I have in the best condition so they will last as long as possible.
 
Could it be possible that you're hearing chain slap? These Plastic chain guides and hydro tentioners don't last forever
 
thaywood said:
On a couple of my old cars, I would start using the Lucas when I started hearing valve clatter or other "odd" noises from the engine. In most cases, the Lucas would eliminate the noises and the engine would run fine as long as I owned it.
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That's almost certainly due to the increased viscosity you're getting by adding the LOS.


thaywood said:
The '97 LSC has 209k miles on it now. I use 5w20 oil and I've recently started using Lucas every other oil change just as a precaution.
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I'd recommend running a quality 0W-30 or 5W-30 oil rather than adding LOS to a 5W-20.
 
racecougar said:
Just to add to this, what is so wrong with your oil that it needs stabilizing, or anything else added to it for that matter? LOS is mostly a 60 grade base stock lubricant with little to no additives. It does nothing more than thicken the oil you are mixing it with, while also diluting the add pack. Why would you want to reduce the percentage of additives in the lubricant when replacing one quart of normal oil with LOS? If you need a heavier oil weight, then just run a heavier oil weight. If you're running a quality oil, there is no reason to add anything to it.
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I had the same theory as Thaywood. I thought it would quiet the ticking. Sapp, if it's tensioners, why would the ticking go away at highway speeds for a few miles and strt to return after idling again?
 
My Great 8 said:
I had the same theory as Thaywood. I thought it would quiet the ticking. Sapp, if it's tensioners, why would the ticking go away at highway speeds for a few miles and strt to return after idling again?
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Brother mine is doing 100% the same exactly as you describe. Semi-loud ticking/tapping under the passenger side cam cover. Even with the loudness of my Warlocks it's present. In park or neutral I can rev the motor and it increases with rpm's, but when driving highway speeds (or over around 40 MPH) the sound isn't present. Still idles and drives as smooth as ever, plenty of power. I too tried the Lucas to try and quiet it with no luck. Good Luck with this as I'll be paying close attention to this thread...;)
 
ForeverScrewed said:
Brother mine is doing 100% the same exactly as you describe. Semi-loud ticking/tapping under the passenger side cam cover. Even with the loudness of my Warlocks it's present. In park or neutral I can rev the motor and it increases with rpm's, but when driving highway speeds (or over around 40 MPH) the sound isn't present. Still idles and drives as smooth as ever, plenty of power. I too tried the Lucas to try and quiet it with no luck. Good Luck with this as I'll be paying close attention to this thread...;)
Click to expand...

The engine has a mind of its own. For the past three days, it has been as quiet as a mouse. I am going to monitor it and hope for the best. It has been driven the same way (not beat or abused) and my Son put 85 miles on it in three days. I will be driving it to my new house next weekend (about 350 mile round trip). I will see how it acts. Thanks to all who posted!
 
for what its worth my old mark had a tick after 2nd motor rebuilt 3x with same lifters until the last replacement. only made noise at idle too with no performance loss. jon told me it was the guides,too not lifters.
the new car is quiet as a mouse.and to your other friend i never bad mouthed him and made it a point not to mention him as i blamed his mehanic. just a lack of interest on his part rubbed me the wrong way. its not my fault he lost $$ on the job i paid him what he asked. i didnt drop a socket in the motor. as far asim concerned its water under the bridge
 
I will add my 2 cents. The 98 I have owned for about 3 weeks has a tick on the pass side just under the cam covers too. I just finished my jmod today and took it down off the jack stands to go for a test drive. When cold the tick is pretty loud and seems to go away just above 2200-2500 rpm.

After the test drive the tick is gone.

The oil is brand new motorcraft semi 5w20.

The jmod is cool, it can break the tires loose at the 1-2 shift. Going to the track this weekend.
 
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