heres one for ya...

[4drpower]

starting to get pissed, bought the car about two weeks ago changed the oil plugs, wires, cap, rotor what not now when i start the car for the first time in the day or after it has been sitting for a couple hours or so I hear that damn tapping noise its not from up top of the engine but if i listen by the front tire and fender I can hear it, i can also hear it underneath, its pretty annoying at first, but then it fades away after 10-15 seonds but i can still hear it very lightly... what do i do... its like a tap tap tap tap ? help me out i dont wanna have to rebuild this damn motor too!

 

[kustomizingkid]

If its not that bad I would run some AutoRX through the motor and then go up a thickness in oil and drive it....

 

[4drpower]

getting peeeeowed

yup really startin to piss me off... I dont know if its lack of oil pressure or what but its pretty frickin irritating started it up today... again tap tap tap for about 2minutes "cold night" and it quieted it down a little bit to a slight tapping... drove it about 23 miles left the car running got out listen all around the car didnt hear a damn thing besides the cats rattling or the pipe hitting something in the rear where I cut it... no it is not the exhaust but it was weird I didnt hear :q:q:q:q! no tapping whatsoever opened the hood... just as quiet as can be or well atleast for 212k miles... i drove it home no problem even got into it with some crazy guy that had a mid nineties chevy caprice that said heavy chevy on it? duals sounded like crap and that was actually a pretty funny race... he gave me the dirtiest look when he seen the bucket just cruisin on by him but anyways got home got out again didnt hear nothing... NOTHING shut it off sit about 5 seconds turned it back on very faint tapping is back WTF????

 

[Dankar]

Lifter??

Sound to me like a weak lifter who cannot keep is load, I would try Lucas oil in it.

Just my two cents!

 

[4drpower]

.....

anyone ever hear of rislone? I hear its supposed to clean all the :q:q:q:q out of the motor... Ie engine gunk maybe the passages in the rods etc.. im thinking its not getting enough oil on initial startup until the engine is warmed up enough that the oil has thinned out and could finally make it through everything? i dunno im gonna try something

 

[torquemonkey]

I do not like to use internal engine cleaners. To much risk on getting crap broke loose and into something important. Run her good and hard, change the oil after a few hundred miles a couple of times. Walmart has some good cheap synthetic oil that will clean'er up good.

+1 for a lifter not pumping up.

 

[4drpower]

wouldnt that take the risk of breaking something at 212k haha and you want me to run synthetic in it afterwards? just curious

 

[torquemonkey]

Run what you brung...

Dino-butt will do you just fine. The synthetic suggestion is to get some cleaning action in the engine, that may not be as abrasive. Solvents might clean and break up enough gunk to change the protective oil into an oil polish. Syn. is so good, it'll clean the space in between your gaskets. (leak)

The idea is to get the oil hot and running to flush the internals. You can run what you want, what you know works best for you. A few trips up and down the highway, keeping the oil pressure up, will do the trick.

 

[4drpower]

this damn thing is killing me.. haha its leaking coolant from somewhere up front, coming out of the reservoir bottle believe it or not, im thinking the radiator is clogged up since i dumped some pepper in to cure a small leak... its leaking tranny fluid im thinking from the pan gasket, and leaking oil from somewhere other than the valve covers, wherever it is its running from up top down the back of the tranny and onto the ground... this thing is killing me but I guess for 750 bucks and it runs good i shouldnt complain too much

 

[TicTacTone]

if its leaking oil then when it comes time to top it off use some atf instead of oil, the detergents in it will help clean everything out without being too abrasive, run it for a couple hundred miles then do an oil change and see if that helps...with 212k though it might be sludge build up in the pan and on the pick up which is causing it to restrict oil flow on start up then once it warms up a bit and the oil thins out it goes away (or quiets down) because it can flow a little better...for the tranny leak, lubegard makes some good stuff for that try putting some of that in and see if it helps but if it is the pan gasket then just change it, its simple and quick to do...for the oil leak that looks like its coming from the top of the tranny...what year mk 7 is this? and is it cfi or sefi? i'm not positive about this but if the cfi intake manifold is set up like a carb'd manifold then theres a gasket on the back from the intake to the engine that is cork from the factory, get an intake gasket set and just use some rtv to seal it up rather then the cork gasket...i had this problem on a mustang once (carb'd 302) and that fixed it up...if its not coming from the very top of the bellhousing and is basically leaking from where the tranny meets the block then its probly the rear main seal...212k and its probly never been changed cuz its an auto i wouldnt doubt its leaking...that sucks though because you have to pull either the engine or tranny to get to it.

 

[4drpower]

.........

haha that is funny because I will do neither to change the rear main seal i will just keep topping it off with oil... haha anyways im debating on whether or not it has a bad head gasket now because it is pushing coolant into the reservoir bottle and causing it to overflow out of it and its building pressure in the bottle and spraying all over the place.. I just changed the radiator and filled it the proper way thinking it was a clogged radiator and its still doing the same thing, its an 88 and im not sure about cfi or sefi never had one of these cars before I just drive it I was thinking about taking the thermostat out and just leaving the radiator cap on the first notch not completely tightening and leaving the radiator about 3/4 full and try that out, I really dont wanna change the head gaskets either, but if I keep all the fluids topped off and check them accordingly i wont have to worry about messing things up, as opposed to letting it run out of coolant and oil and tranny fluid but obviously if it is a head gasket it isnt too bad as of right now, because there is no oil in the coolant or coolant in the oil vice versa.. idk

 

[mrzeee]

we use to use a can of Marvel Mystery Oil for that concern ...but the oil change had to happen soon after to get it out of the engine. Do they still make that stuff??

 

[4drpower]

yup sure do!

 

[4drpower]

i have a quart of rislone that my gpa always use to use on his fords, seemed to always help but never tried it yet, I also hear from a fellow ford friend that the 5litres arent really known to be a sludge building engine idk?

 

[Ricks90billblass]

You could always try putting a can of seafoam in the oil just follow the directions on the can as to how long to run (5-10-15 minutes) it before you change the oil
But with 210k+ miles on it, it may just be tired.

 

[Elessee]

[.........no it is not the exhaust but it was weird ......
.........anyways got home got out again didnt hear nothing... NOTHING shut it off sit about 5 seconds turned it back on very faint tapping is back WTF????]

Well, i'm sitting here thinking that's so weird. What could it be..
Maybe it's an exhaust leak at the header?
Maybe the header cools off a lot faster than the block when the engine shuts off, even for 5 seconds.. and maybe the leak opens up. A leak can sound just like a tap-tap-tap.. It might almost go away when the everything gets hot and expands.
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My tranny fluid leak was traced to the hose connection at the bottom of the steering pump reservoir. It's a tiny little band-clamp, maybe 1/2 inch diameter. The hose runs under to the steering gear and the leak went everywhere. I dunno if this clamp is stock. Anyway, fixing that cured my leak.
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AS for the radiator, i'm thinking this is the most important problem and must be fixed.
I wonder if a bad radiator cap could be the problem. If it doesn't hold pressure.. maybe 12 PSI (?) the water boils off, goes into the overflow resevoir, even though engine temp is normal and everything else is ok.
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I avoid using fix-it in a bottle.. unless i know absolutely positively what it is i'm "fixing" (trying to hide).
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Keep on keeping on.. If you find and fix all these little things you'll have a nice car in a few months. If you fail to find and fix them, I doubt you'll still have the car six months from now.

When i got my car, it took me about 4 months to fix it's major problems and make it reliable. Another 3 years or so to straighten out the minor problems. Then, another 2 years to fix a few minor annoyances.. And brand new problems come up every so often.
In otherwords, i've been working on this car since i got it and am committed to keep on working on it forever. It's bone stock.. but runs fine... 242K .. and worth every bit of the time, money and effort, imo.