truck has been sitting cold all day. so i went out and turned it one pulled into the drive way and shut her down. started listening and i heard some random light pings or ticks, that seemed to come from the valve cover/head area.

as far as oil pressure it has always been straight up and down at 40 or a lil better at idle. but i noticed when in park yesterday the gauge was just below 40 and shaking, or trembling. it never dipped, or had crazy flucatutions, and when i put it in drive it smooth out and everything is fine. granted this is all from the stock gauge, im sure a mechanical gauge would be better.

i know its hard to really give a good diagnoses or any hard evidence. but thanks for your help i realy havent ever heard of this before. and i really hope it isnt a big deal. who knows...

 

Yes, indeed, you have a case of lifter tick. Now that we have that out of the way, we need to focus on the trembling and shaking of that oil pressure gauge. That's not normal and, something is going on there for sure. Your description is fine. There's no need for hard evidence as I believe that you've got the tick that goes on for a while after turning it off. This is how we approach these types of problems. Ask questions and hopefully, we get enough information to at least make a proper assessment of possible root causes.

How many miles POST intake change?

Which brand of oil filter do you use? NOTE: If your not running WIX- it would be in your best interest to start doing so.

What brand of motor oil and what is the rating: SAE 30, 40, 50 or 10W 30, 10W 40, 20W-50

CM

 

well i changed the plenum wed. ive ut maybe 75 miles since then. i didnt notice it yesterday as i was looking for the gauge to do it again. i put some sea foam in with the oil about two days ago. i wanna say it was after i noticed the gauge trembling.

and yes i use the wix filter and 10-30 Castrol high mileage, thats what ive used since ive had it and always noticed good results. i was planning on doing an oil change within the next week since i just did the plenum.

 

The Seafoam treatment is the root of the problem. It's still in there thinning out the oil thus causing the oil to weep. Flush the system out with clean motor oil and drain all that junk out of there. That stuff does not work anyway. I used two cans of that junk and, when I took the intake off, it was Cajun crust and BBQ black on everything.

There's your root cause- Seafoam. As soon as it's all drained out and, your running 100% Dino oil, you won't have any issues. It will cease.

CM

 

even with the ticking? that was haepping before both the sea foam, and the Plenum fix. its probably been a month or that has been happening. since at least my last oil change.

yeah i do plan on changing that out soon. probably tomorrow, and then i will reassess the ticking. hopefully it clears up.

but if it doesnt, what am i looking at with the lifter ticking to be fixed? just thicker oil or would the heads have to be rebuilt or something to that degree?

 

Seafoam, or anything added to the OIL is never good. It is MUCH better to just change your oil at faster intervals so your engine gets naturally flushed.

I bought my 2001 in 2008 with only 41,250 miles. The PO had all the documentation of mobil 1 oil changes. I changed the oil every 3 k miles OR 3 months with whatever synthetic was on special at autozone PLUS lucas oil additive. When I did my plenum change and 1.7s, the engine was pristine (plenum was good as well, but I did it for prev maint). I was shocked because everyone else had baked crust in their 1.7 install pics (like the guy in the DIY).

I think the lucas was the key helper. Lucas has anti foam in there and foaming from gasoline getting into your oil and thinning it is what causes baked on crud. The anti foam is also why you can run 100% lucas oil additive in your differentials!! I have a 50/50 mix in my diffs. I would have done 100% but it was cold when I was doing the change and the lucas oil additive is THICK when cold. So I needed to thin it with gear oil.

But I digress. Listen to whatever cmckenna says because he is HANDS DOWN the most knowledgeable guy on this forum as far anything under the hood. MontyC is the tranny guy.

 

Ok, now there's a bit more to the story than was initially presented. That being said, you've got a problem if that was an issue PRIOR to the Seafoam treatment and, it's been that way for one month? I had it happen after SF-ing mine. Drove me nuts. Flushed it, gone.

So, that's what I thought the root problem was. Now, we've got to get to the bottom of this because, there's an indicator that is telling you that something is not correct.

I want you to think about trying some other motor oil- just to rule / factor out the motor oil you've been running. I know you have always used the motor oil your running and, it's never been an issue but, something has changed for, you don't get lifter leak down out of the blue.

I want you to run a simple experiment. Run Valvoline, 10-30 (low mileage) or 10-40 high mileage. See how it does once you've flushed out all the Seafoam.

Let's try that first before jumping to conclusions and tearing the lifters out.
CM

 

The part of changing the oil sooner is 100% correct. The correct oils for older trucks like we run is Dino Oil and, it's also got detergents. Those help to clean the parts. The problem with Full Synthetics and even blends is, those detergents are factored out due to the chemical make up of the oil.

I called Amsoil and spoke to a chemist about why they don't have detergents included in their Synthetics and, it was because they are incompatible thus breaking down the molecular bond / chains. It ruins the oil so, they can't add it in.

So, if one is running nothing but synthetics, what happens is, you end up with a hard crust forming on all the parts which, is very difficult to remove- even mechanically- it's a bear of a job to remove. It's almost welded to the parts. I had a hell of a time using a wire brush, removing this crap from a timing chain / pulley setup that I removed from the engine after replacing it.

It was fused / bonded / attached etc etc and, very difficult for solvents to dissolve it as well. Now I'm not going into another rant about Lucas products as it's a waste of breath. However, I will say it's a HUGE mass-marketed product targeted at the unknowing consumer. They know how to sell that's for sure. In fact, one of their plants is near me. They take one formula, stick a different label on it and call it something else. It's like a one-size-fits-all approach with them and, if you ever come across their injectors (Accel 3-4 holes) do not touch them with a ten-foot-pole for they are the WORST quality injectors I've seen to date. I've personally tested those. The flow rate- way off. The pattern, all over the map- pure garbage.

CM

 

well in my first post i stated the ticking had been happening for several months, and explained that i just put sea foam in the other day, after my plenum was done .

today i went ahead and changed the oil. switched to the valvoline high mileage 10-40 with the wix filer(which i always used anyway) so maybe it will help. as of right now i noticed it still ticks after i shut it off but i would think it would take a lil bit for the new oil to work its way everywhere it needs. so ill keep my fingers crossed.

 

I did read that but, again, the way it was written almost made it sound as if it just started occurring after the last oil change. Anyway, <IF> that has been happening for that long, either:

a. the lifters are bad / worn

b. the lifters are dirty and not enough oil is entering into the lifter due to clogged passages. NOTE: This is a common problem after running ENGINE FLUSH treatments. All of the debris and sludge that it frees up FLOWS inside the oil passages thus causing / inducing oil restriction in the passages. This is why the only cleaning should be done with a high detergent, Dino based motor oil that will break it down slowly.

c. low oil pressure

d. Aeration: the oil is aerating either due to a leak at the pump thus sucking in air or, due to an overfill condition to where, the crank is splashing in the oil pan thus creating foam.

e. Overheating the oil thus thinning it out. In this case, I recommend an SAE type of dino oil.

Let's see how it does after you get some miles on it.

CM