Exhaust Manifold Gaskets/Lifter Tick

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JPVortex

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If that is the case. The metal swells a little when heated and may not have a leak till it cools down again.
Yeah that’s probably the case. For the immediate future I pretend it’s not there(lol) and it’ll be addressed at some point soon. I absolutely need the truck sooner than later, so unfortunately I’m going to have to run with it for now.
 

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I used aftermarket gaskets and RTV ( O2 sensor safe) with only one issue. I did not wait long enough for the RTV to cure on bank one and silicone poisoned the upstream O2 sensor. Not a big deal just another expense and trip under the truck.
 
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I used aftermarket gaskets and RTV ( O2 sensor safe) with only one issue. I did not wait long enough for the RTV to cure on bank one and silicone poisoned the upstream O2 sensor. Not a big deal just another expense and trip under the truck.
Good information thank you!
 
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So for this lifter tick I have bought 2 different snake oils. They total 0.6 quarts together, but not sure if I should run them together.

I purchased Motor Medic Valve Medic, this contains kerosene and some diesel. They claim it cleans out gummy lifters and quiets them down quick. Now they to drive the vehicle immediately and to keep the stuff in there for the entire duration of the oil change.

2nd snake oil is Liqui-Moly MSO2 engine treatment. ALSO meant to be kept in for duration of the oil change.

So question is, should I just change the oil and run these 2 together? Not sure if it'd be wise to run 2 additives at the same time. Or would it be wiser to stack them? So like on my current oil I can put the MotorMedic Valve Medic into the engine and drive it for 3-400 miles to make sure it does its job, then change the oil and put the LiquiMoly in and run it.
 

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Usually, when I got involved with two chicks at once, neither would take any responsibility for anything bad that happened -
they always blamed the other one, and it was an uphill battle on ice to straighten out what happened and who was to blame.

Point is, NO, do not run them at the same time.
In fact, run one treatment for the duration of the oil change - how long is that, exactly? -
then change the oil and filter ONLY, and run that for the duration of the oil change,
THEN
run the other treatment, just to be sure that the 2nd treatment doesn't get any of the first treatment's stank on it.
 
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Usually, when I got involved with two chicks at once, neither would take any responsibility for anything bad that happened -
they always blamed the other one, and it was an uphill battle on ice to straighten out what happened and who was to blame.

Point is, NO, do not run them at the same time.
In fact, run one treatment for the duration of the oil change - how long is that, exactly? -
then change the oil and filter ONLY, and run that for the duration of the oil change,
THEN
run the other treatment, just to be sure that the 2nd treatment doesn't get any of the first treatment's stank on it.
Well that’s an easy way of putting it ;)

The first treatment will probably not get ran long. It’s winter here and I still have 10w40 in it, little too thick for how cold it is. It has also already been in there for 2500ish miles. Will definitely make sure they don’t get any of the first treatments stank haha!
 

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Right before (the day of) you do an oil change just dump a quart of tranny fluid into your oil and run the engine in your driveway for 20-30mins. DO NOT DRIVE with tranny fluid in your oil. Do your oil change (filter too) and if that dont stop a noisy lifter then nothing will or you have something else wrong like a loose rocker, faulty roller, hosed cam lobe, etc.

Tranny fluid is a coolant, detergent and a hydraulic fluid and it is used for all 3 of these function in a transmission.
 
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Right before (the day of) you do an oil change just dump a quart of tranny fluid into your oil and run the engine in your driveway for 20-30mins. DO NOT DRIVE with tranny fluid in your oil. Do your oil change (filter too) and if that dont stop a noisy lifter then nothing will or you have something else wrong like a loose rocker, faulty roller, hosed cam lobe, etc.

Tranny fluid is a coolant, detergent and a hydraulic fluid and it is used for all 3 of these function in a transmission.
Does it matter what type of ATF? I have some ATF +4 just sitting around from an old Chrysler I had. Do you drain out a quart or just overfill it for that 20-30 minutes?
 

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Right before (the day of) you do an oil change just dump a quart of tranny fluid into your oil and run the engine in your driveway for 20-30mins. DO NOT DRIVE with tranny fluid in your oil. Do your oil change (filter too) and if that dont stop a noisy lifter then nothing will or you have something else wrong like a loose rocker, faulty roller, hosed cam lobe, etc.

Tranny fluid is a coolant, detergent and a hydraulic fluid and it is used for all 3 of these function in a transmission.
I almost recommended this, because have been doing it at different times in my shops career, but I had been told by another member here, that info is too old school for these "new fangled" vehicles. I did not want to argue so have bit my tongue a few times when this topic came up. But, @rockola1971 is correct. The transmission fluid will do about the same but is not recommended for a full "tour of duty" oil change interval. Grab some Dexron and do it.
 
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I almost recommended this, because have been doing it at different times in my shops career, but I had been told by another member here, that info is too old school for these "new fangled" vehicles. I did not want to argue so have bit my tongue a few times when this topic came up. But, @rockola1971 is correct. The transmission fluid will do about the same but is not recommended for a full "tour of duty" oil change interval. Grab some Dexron and do it.
Thank you! I'll give it a shot, worst it should do is not work and I'm out $5 for a quart of Dex III and 20 minutes.

There are some places online that advise against it, saying it won't do anything and regular motor oil has more detergents than ATF, but then a lot of people say it works and quiets lifters. So it's a bit of a 50/50 shot.

I'll put in the MotorMedic Valve medic for a bit, then add the atf and run it right before the oil change, and finally I'll change the oil and add the LiquiMoly MSo2.
 

rockola1971

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Does it matter what type of ATF? I have some ATF +4 just sitting around from an old Chrysler I had. Do you drain out a quart or just overfill it for that 20-30 minutes?
Ive always used Dextron. Never owned a Ford and the only Dodge I ever owned was a manual tranny and shortlived. The old tranny fluid works in the fuel tank too for cleaning fuel injectors. Just dump a quart into a half tank of gas and go. May smoke some but no big deal. Works great on carbs for motorcycles, lawnmowers, etc.
 

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Well, I hate to say it but I did some reading and it turns out that today's oils have more detergents than ATF does. The oils are dealing with a combustion process and transmission fluid isn't. The articles I read say that the additives do an all round better job than ATF. In essence, it would be better to add a quart of new oil before the change, than adding the ATF fluid. All articles referenced that the ATF method did work 50 years ago but oil detergents have passed the ATF by.

I have to admit that the articles made sense.
 
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Well, I hate to say it but I did some reading and it turns out that today's oils have more detergents than ATF does. The oils are dealing with a combustion process and transmission fluid isn't. The articles I read say that the additives do an all round better job than ATF. In essence, it would be better to add a quart of new oil before the change, than adding the ATF fluid. All articles referenced that the ATF method did work 50 years ago but oil detergents have passed the ATF by.

I have to admit that the articles made sense.
Yeah thats kind of the vibe I was getting when I was looking into it. Glad to see that you were seeing the same thing that I was. May end up skipping it, could end up being a waste of time.
 

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The engine cleaner additive could be worth a shot. May be better than nothing but don't cheap out on it if you do it. Do the research first.
For oils and fuels and cleaners, I always check out what Lake Speed Junoor has to say at you tube.
 
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The engine cleaner additive could be worth a shot. May be better than nothing but don't cheap out on it if you do it. Do the research first.
For oils and fuels and cleaners, I always check out what Lake Speed Junoor has to say at you tube.
Just worried about what something super harsh is going to do. Was going to get the 5 minute MotorMedic flush, but reading about motor flushes scared me. Always the possibility of breaking down the sludge and having the pickup screen pick it up, and clogging it, that wouldn’t be good.

I think I’ll continue with the MotorMedic ValveMedic(seems to be less harsh than the quick flush) and the LiquiMoly MSo2 and see what happens. From there if that does nothing I may run a more expensive engine flush, from LiquiMoly or maybe Amsoil.
 
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So another thing I was thinking about this tick, how common is rocker arm failure? I had the valve covers off a few months back, and some had slight side to side movement but no up and down movement.

Could the trunnion bearing in one of them have play in it and I'm not feeling it? Causing the tick? Do I need to remove the rocker arms to see if the trunnions have play?
 
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So little update here. First of all I changed the name of the thread to Exhaust Manifold Gaskets/Lifter Tick, as the conversation has moved more toward the tick at this point.

So I put the valve medic in and drove it around for a good 45 minutes. No change in the tick.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, I know the general rule is 10psi per thousand RPM for oil pressure at warm idle, which means I technically have enough oil pressure, BUT most healthy gen 3 engines I see warm idle at around 40-45psi, that's not the case for me. At warm idle I'm right around the 30psi mark on 10w40 oil, on 5w30 it's around 28psi. The pickup tube oring has already been replaced by me a few months back. I replaced the factory turqoise/greenish? oring with a Felpro 72401 and it did NOT make any difference. I did notice the new oring didnt feel super super tight going in, didn't take much pressure for it to pop in. Another suspect is oil pump, the mechanical gauge I have installed is right at the plug for the oil pump, where you would prime it. So that 30psi is what's at the pump, not accounting for drop off as it travels through the passages to the valve train. Could this be causing the tick? Lack of oil getting to the top of the engine? If I have to drop the front differential and the oil pan again for the oring, definitely will be putting an oil pump into it.


Here's the video of the pressures and such, sorry for having my finger of the mic during most of it lol.
 

Marky Dissod

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Could this be causing the tick? Lack of oil getting to the top of the engine?
Unlikely. Check by removing the valvecovers, starting the engine, and proving or disproving your hypothesis.
You may find some other explanation - something loose?
(I've NO gottdamnt clue why valvecovers can't be at least partially clear.)
 
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Unlikely. Check by removing the valvecovers, starting the engine, and proving or disproving your hypothesis.
You may find some other explanation - something loose?
(I've NO gottdamnt clue why valvecovers can't be at least partially clear.)
That would be a bit messy! Especially with oil slinging all over the coils that usually need to be removed to get the valve cover off.
 

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