After Head swap getting loud lifter tick

[ReverendOD]

My Jeep was very quiet till after i did my head swap (due to a crack and coolant damage. Its dead quiet upon start up but within a minuet or two it will begin to tick and end up very loud sounds like a cummins. I am running 20w-50 oil but was running 10w-30 before When putting the pushrods back in I droped a few in the gravel. Cleaned them well but they went in out of order so im assuming thats where my tick is comming from? or possibly the thicker oil?

2001 Jeep Cherokee
135,000 miles

 

[joe_peters]

Possibly, either one could result in a little more noise.

Could try a little MMO--Marvel Mystery Oil--in the crankcase.

 

[ReverendOD]

I think first ill try and switch back to 10w30 and see how the oil pressure holds when warm, but honestly i didnt notice a difffrnce in hot oil pressure from 10w30 to 20w50.

Whats strikes me as odd is why its quiet upson start up.

Ill possibly try MMO but going from dead quiet to deisel loud after the head swap leads to me think its something else.

 

[stockli]

Did you check the torque setting on the rocker bolts?

 

[97GreenXJ]

Are all of the valvetrain components that went back in stock? Did you go to a roller rocker, or switch to an aftermarket lifter or valvespring? It's not unheard of to get a valvespring with a defect from the factory. I won't name anyone, but at least one of the big manufacturers has had a bit of a quality control problem over the last few years...

Can you adjust the rockers with the engine running on a 4.0, like you can do with a SBC, or do you have to move each cylinder to TDC and hope it's right?

 

[robsjeepxj]

It would have been the perfect time to replace the lifters while you had the head off, not that that helps any now but I would recheck the valve adjustment and run put in the right oil and see if that fixes it, 20w50 is too thick.

 

[ReverendOD]

I pulled the rocker cover and the noise doesn't seem to be from any of the rockers. I rechecked the torque on them and it made no difference so most likely its in the lifters. So an oil change with some MMO is my next step I guess.

 

[ReverendOD]

Well im pretty sure its an oil volume issue. If I put the brake on and bring the RPM's up it clatters till youg et around 1200rpm and then goes whisper quiet. Leads me to believe the thicker oil just isnt flowing fast enough so here to hoping 10w-30 does the trick. Assuming the thinner oil still holds a decent hot idle oil pressure, but i would assume it should if not bumping the idle up a bit always helps.

 

[NorCalChris]

sounds like stuck lifter to me. before you change the oil add a quart of atf to the engine oil(sounds weird i know) run it like that for the day and then do your oil change. i have done this to many vehicles and it has worked on all of them except one. atf is a huge detergent oil. so it cleans while lubricating.

 

[ReverendOD]

Ive heard of doing ATF flushes before. Should I drain a quart of oil and replace it with the ATF or just add the ATF?

 

[WrenchMonkey]

My brand new crate engine started making a horrible tapping noise from the #2 cylinder, after just 60 miles.

I pulled the valve cover, checked everything over, then dumped a quart of Risalone right down the #2cyl pushrod holes, right into the suspect lifters.

Hasn't made a peep since.

Robert

 

[ReverendOD]

My brand new crate engine started making a horrible tapping noise from the #2 cylinder, after just 60 miles.

I pulled the valve cover, checked everything over, then dumped a quart of Risalone right down the #2cyl pushrod holes, right into the suspect lifters.

Hasn't made a peep since.

Robert

Not a bad idea to apply Risalone, MMO, ect... right onto the lifters...

 

[NorCalChris]

just ad the atf to the engine. dont drain anything.no specific type of atf either. the parts store's cheapest stuff will work wonders.

 

[ReverendOD]

just ad the atf to the engine. dont drain anything.no specific type of atf either. the parts store's cheapest stuff will work wonders.

Ill give that a shot before I switch to 10w-30 this weekend.

 

[NorCalChris]

let us know if it helped you out.

 

[heyhar]

I hope one of the additives works for you. I had identical symptoms to yours, but ended up pulling the head and replacing the lifters. I also got new rockers, as the ones that were tapping also showed damage from getting hammered. Out of our four XJs, the '92 was the only one that did this, and it started just before 100k miles, and I did it at about 130k. Now, over 200k, still sounds great.

 

[HttpWayne]

Are all of the valvetrain components that went back in stock? Did you go to a roller rocker, or switch to an aftermarket lifter or valvespring? It's not unheard of to get a valvespring with a defect from the factory. I won't name anyone, but at least one of the big manufacturers has had a bit of a quality control problem over the last few years...

Can you adjust the rockers with the engine running on a 4.0, like you can do with a SBC, or do you have to move each cylinder to TDC and hope it's right?

Perhaps you could shed some light. I bought a 4.6 stroker from Titan and thought everything was warrantied if something failed. One of the lifters attained a hole in it. I was told that a valve spring HAD to have been the cause since it ran just fine enough for us to break it in but started ticking (and wiped out the cam in the) 5 miles down the road (this coming from a 20 year GM veteran owning his own mechanic shop). Had to pay Titan $735 to decontaminate the engine and replace the cam + valve springs and lifters. They said we broke the cam in wrong, we said one of the valve springs was defective. The man owns his own race car and builds engines all the time. No way to prove either one in the end.

That's when I found out their warranty only covers workmanship. The quality of the engine assembly, NOT the parts that may or may not fail on their own accord from whatever company they got them from. Costly price to pay for something that was someone else's manu'XXXX'ture up.

 

[ReverendOD]

Trying ATF or MMO neither helped eveng going to a thinner oil makes no difference. But still again once you get the motor up over 12-1300 it goes away completely. Nothing that bothers me enough to warrant pulling the head again to swap lifters so im lost, wasnt to thick of oil... isnt the rockers... and if it was a bent pushrod or cracked rocker I would assume it would be there through the entire RPM range.

Oh well...

 

[jcshaney]

put a real oil pressure gage on it and see what that says. i wouldn't drive it like that.

 

[ReverendOD]

put a real oil pressure gage on it and see what that says. i wouldn't drive it like that.

Ive got one on it, it will tick on cold startup with 45 psi or warm idle at 7 doesnt matter.