Constant ticking @ top of engine... lifter?

[Ronnie t]

Always worth checking/double check manifolds, they all get to a point of air leak somewhere

Well, if it goes away after it kicks down and idles, most likely it's exhaust manifold/s

 

[Ronnie t]

Well, if it goes away after it kicks down and idles, most likely it's exhaust manifold/s

I'm in way over my head hear with y'alls knowledge base, I'm just trying out site as a newbie, peace!

 

[Rocket Man]

Always worth checking/double check manifolds, they all get to a point of air leak somewhere

I assume you’re talking exhaust manifolds? Due to broken bolts that are so prevalent? Please explain, that’s kind of a blanket statement. And I have to disagree on the part about all of them regardless. Broken exhaust manifold bolts is a known issue with these engines but there’s plenty of them running around with broken bolts that don’t leak.

 

[Just Fishing]

Looks like you figured it out, a stuck lifter.
Being on #1 that should be really easy to try the hammer method to unstick it if not too bad.

With that amount of sludge, i would tread very carefully with any sort of crank case cleaning agent like seafoam.

I might try seafoam down the intake/smoke out the neighbors method in hopes of cleaning up carbon that might have gummed rings.

But once you have it fixed up, do some oil changes at 3k miles using a quality full synthetic to slowly remove the gunk.

I hope you get it unstuck w/o having to pull the heads!

 

[iamdub]

I'll check out the VLOM once I get in there regardless. I think I do have the updated one, after some more reading and comparing.

Valve cover pic, as requested, showing not-unexpected coating and varnishing. The passenger gasket looks halfway ok, but the driver-side one is cracked in a few places:
View attachment 374574

I've seen worse, but that's still nothing to ignore. Even at 183K, it doesn't mean it WILL look like that. If there's hard carbon and varnish on the valve covers and insides of the heads, then it's in your entire oil system. A tiny piece of that carbon could be stuck in that #1 lifter, keeping it from pumping up. I'm not a fan of using harsh chemicals to quickly break up carbon deposits. This is exactly how chunks do damage. Tons of smoke out the exhaust doesn't necessarily mean it's breaking up and burning carbon. Most of that is just the Seafoam burning. Using detergents in high quality oil to dissolve the deposits to a liquid state, or at least very small/fine particles to carry them to the filter and out through an oil drain is safest.

This is mine at around 190,000ish miles: https://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/threads/growing-up-doesnt-have-to-suck.93510/post-1330358

 

[Professor L Gee]

Looks like you figured it out, a stuck lifter.
Being on #1 that should be really easy to try the hammer method to unstick it if not too bad.

With that amount of sludge, i would tread very carefully with any sort of crank case cleaning agent like seafoam.

I might try seafoam down the intake/smoke out the neighbors method in hopes of cleaning up carbon that might have gummed rings.

But once you have it fixed up, do some oil changes at 3k miles using a quality full synthetic to slowly remove the gunk.

I hope you get it unstuck w/o having to pull the heads!

I hope so too! I planned to get back to it this afternoon, but we had a ton of rain come through which ruined my plans.

There are two hammer methods I've seen/heard of.
One was to remove the VLOM plate and use a solid metal rod of some sort in the oil passage (I assume?) to unstick the lifter. This seems most common.
I did read about someone using a hammer on an extension on the rocker arm above the pushrod in order to get the lifter to bounce back into place, but this one seems less likely to work...

 

[Professor L Gee]

I've seen worse, but that's still nothing to ignore. Even at 183K, it doesn't mean it WILL look like that. If there's hard carbon and varnish on the valve covers and insides of the heads, then it's in your entire oil system. A tiny piece of that carbon could be stuck in that #1 lifter, keeping it from pumping up. I'm not a fan of using harsh chemicals to quickly break up carbon deposits. This is exactly how chunks do damage. Tons of smoke out the exhaust doesn't necessarily mean it's breaking up and burning carbon. Most of that is just the Seafoam burning. Using detergents in high quality oil to dissolve the deposits to a liquid state, or at least very small/fine particles to carry them to the filter and out through an oil drain is safest.

This is mine at around 190,000ish miles: https://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/threads/growing-up-doesnt-have-to-suck.93510/post-1330358

See, now I'm jealous of your valvetrain.

 

[iamdub]

See, now I'm jealous of your valvetrain.

Just gotta let the detergents in GOOD oils do their thang. They do work and are certainly worth the extra cost.

I think you should try to unstick that lifter. If it works, disable AFM then stick to using quality synthetic oil and a good filter. Change the oil when it gets dark, whether it be 2,000 miles or 5,000. It getting dark means it's dissolving the crud in the engine, suspending it and carrying it out when drained, just as it's supposed to do. As the insides are cleaned, it'll take longer and longer for the oil to get dark. Eventually, you'll reach a point where you can stick to a regular schedule that's convenient for you. I change mine every 5K. It's excessive, especially with how the oil looks after 5K, and I can go much longer. But, I rotate the tires at the same time I do oil since I already have it up off the ground and I wouldn't go more than about 6K on a rotation. 5K is a little more careful maintenance and just an easier interval to remember since multiples of 5 is easier than multiples of 6.

 

[skpyle]

Just gotta let the detergents in GOOD oils do their thang. They do work and are certainly worth the extra cost.

I think you should try to unstick that lifter. If it works, disable AFM then stick to using quality synthetic oil and a good filter. Change the oil when it gets dark, whether it be 2,000 miles or 5,000. It getting dark means it's dissolving the crud in the engine, suspending it and carrying it out when drained, just as it's supposed to do. As the insides are cleaned, it'll take longer and longer for the oil to get dark. Eventually, you'll reach a point where you can stick to a regular schedule that's convenient for you. I change mine every 5K. It's excessive, especially with how the oil looks after 5K, and I can go much longer. But, I rotate the tires at the same time I do oil since I already have it up off the ground and I wouldn't go more than about 6K on a rotation. 5K is a little more careful maintenance and just an easier interval to remember since multiples of 5 is easier than multiples of 6.

This. Nothing truer...

 

[pwtr02ss]

Excuse the teenage text/tiktok speak, but that sounds "lifter af". Have you always ran full synthetic and performed oil changes regularly? If not, you could have some gunk built up and the high quality detergents in the HMFS oil began breaking down the gunk. A tiny piece could've gotten stuck in a lifter, keeping it from pumping up. I've seen this fixed by a few hard WOT runs to use the higher oil pressures to force its way in. Not suggesting you try this, but not not suggesting it, either. If the lifter has actually failed, it will need replacing.

This is pretty much what happened to me. Never had any lifter noise and then I did a Mobil 1 oil change and it broke some gunk loose. That randomly lifter thing was accompanied by the oil pressure sensor screen getting clogged up, twice...

My lifter would stick but then eventually start working again. It did this if I drove it on the interstate for a period of time. I'd pull over and it would pump back up.

 

[Professor L Gee]

Quick update:
Had to put the Yukon on hold because (1) work was super busy for the past couple of weeks, (2) I've been car shopping to replace my Infiniti, and (3) NC has had a LOT of rain recently.

With the help of Youtube and my neighbor's fuel line release tools, I finally got the intake off. Lemme tell you, I wish I still had my swivel adapter, because those bolts in the back are an absolute pain. Other than that, it was way easier than what I would have had to do for the same job on my Infiniti (don't get me started on how the manifolds have to come off to replace a valve cover on a VQ engine... but that's for another forum).

Now to get the VLOM cover off, but I'll save that for later this week. It doesn't seem like it wants to come right off, even with the ten bolts out.

 

[Dustin Jackson]

Quick update:
Had to put the Yukon on hold because (1) work was super busy for the past couple of weeks, (2) I've been car shopping to replace my Infiniti, and (3) NC has had a LOT of rain recently.

With the help of Youtube and my neighbor's fuel line release tools, I finally got the intake off. Lemme tell you, I wish I still had my swivel adapter, because those bolts in the back are an absolute pain. Other than that, it was way easier than what I would have had to do for the same job on my Infiniti (don't get me started on how the manifolds have to come off to replace a valve cover on a VQ engine... but that's for another forum).

Now to get the VLOM cover off, but I'll save that for later this week. It doesn't seem like it wants to come right off, even with the ten bolts out.

@Professor L Gee Sounds like you're on the right track. I personally don't have much faith in un-sticking a lifter because once it starts to rattle like yours.. the damage has already begun to happen to the cam and lifter.

A rubber mallet can be useful to help break the seal of the rubber gaskets that have baked and glued mating surfaces together.

 

[Professor L Gee]

@Professor L Gee Sounds like you're on the right track. I personally don't have much faith in un-sticking a lifter because once it starts to rattle like yours.. the damage has already begun to happen to the cam and lifter.

A rubber mallet can be useful to help break the seal of the rubber gaskets that have baked and glued mating surfaces together.

Since the tapping wasn't accompanied by any misfires or stumbles, I'm remaining optimistic that any damage is minimal. Under more generous circumstances I would go about replacing everything, but for now I'm hoping that getting the lifter unstuck will hold me for a while, along with some other preventive measures.

Speaking of which...

I went back out there this afternoon and figured out what was keeping me from getting the valley cover off despite removing 10 bolts.
There was an 11th bolt in the back.

I used the hammer trick that y'all mentioned (and that I saw in a few places on YouTube... shout out to CrazedPerformanceRepair), and it took less than 30 seconds of gentle (really, gentle!) tapping for the pushrod to go rocketing out of the hole. Wish I had taken a video of my own.
So the rocker arm is now back in place, and I believe I've seated the pushrod correctly. Need to turn the engine over to make sure, but I don't have a 24mm socket.

More updates to come.

 

[Professor L Gee]

Another big update...

So I finally got almost everything else done:
- new spark plugs and wires (pro tip: if you have the intake manifold off, plug #8 is a piece of cake )
- new valve cover gaskets and grommets
- reinstalled intake manifold
- reconnected everything else

And the rocker ticking is gone!
I had a rough idle, a vacuum leak that increased in pitch when I gave it some gas, a CEL with four codes (P0107, P0122, P0223, P0443), and a low oil pressure message after maybe 3 minutes of idling. Checked my oil level (fine), looked for leaks around the valve covers and on the ground (none), cleared the codes, started 'er up again and just went back and forth in my driveway. No codes or messages came back thus far, and oil pressure was at 40 on startup before settling to 20ish as per the gauge readout (fingers crossed while knocking on wood).

Anyway, here's a video of today's result before clearing the codes. After clearing them and tightening the throttle body to the intake manifold (I took it off and put it back on in the process or removing everything), it sounds a lot smoother though the slight vacuum leak remains. I plan on driving it around a bit later - in M5, of course. And an oil change is on deck for this weekend.

 

[donjetman]

If your happy? I'm happy, except for the vacuum leak? Whats that about?
Fix it?

I guess I need to go video my engine at idle. I swear mine is much quieter than that?

 

[Professor L Gee]

If your happy? I'm happy, except for the vacuum leak? Whats that about?
Fix it?

I guess I need to go video my engine at idle. I swear mine is much quieter than that?

It sounded much better once I cleared the codes, and it sounded almost normal when I took it for a few drives.
Well, except for the vacuum leak, which I think is related to the intake system. I'll sort that out soon.

 

[Dustin Jackson]

Very nice man!

How are things with it now? What remaining problems are there?

 

[Professor L Gee]

Very nice man!

How are things with it now? What remaining problems are there?

Still have a slight vacuum leak on the intake side... I think I have to tighten down the manifold. Beyond that, I've had no problems.

I still have to replace the wire conduit in a few places, but that's about it. Oh, and I have a Range disabler on the way to hold me over while I decide whether to go full delete on the AFM system.

 

[Dustin Jackson]

Still have a slight vacuum leak on the intake side... I think I have to tighten down the manifold. Beyond that, I've had no problems.

I still have to replace the wire conduit in a few places, but that's about it. Oh, and I have a Range disabler on the way to hold me over while I decide whether to go full delete on the AFM system.

@Professor L Gee I ran a Range but had to remove it to pass smog and the first time AFM turned back on I had A lifter collapse, the lifter ended up sorting itself out and I was able to get 6 more months out of it but ended up going with a blackbear tune to turn off AFM in the computer. HP tuners is also a good one I’ve heard, a lot more DIY than the black bear tune.

 

[iamdub]

@Professor L Gee I ran a Range but had to remove it to pass smog and the first time AFM turned back on I had A lifter collapse

Awakening after a long hibernation is what concerns me about "temporarily" disabling. Tune it out or delete it!

HP tuners is also a good one I’ve heard, a lot more DIY than the black bear tune.

A lot more, like 98% more DIY. You had better know what you're doing! I still stand by the cheap way of disabling, where applicable: https://www.lt1swap.com/afm_delete.htm