Engine tick

[kdr358]

My work van is a 1999 E-150 with 156,700 miles on origanal motor and trans. I recieved the van from the company about 5 months ago at about 150,000 miles. I dont know how much longer this thing is going to last. It has a 4.2 v6 and orignal tranny when i get up to about 5 mph the trans will hesatate or the motor will one of the two but all other gears switch fine. but about 2 months ago i started to hear a faint tick in the motor so i got the oil changed and it was still there I recently took the van to minnesota and back about 600 miles roughly total and now the tick is gotten much worse. the the hesatation is even worse. any advice would be appreciated. thanks:

[RacerHog]

I would try a heavy engine oil.....15W40 Maybe.......If it doest go away then...Well it might be cam and lifter time.......

Just my 2 cents

[BigChevy80]

The tick is probably just a lifter. Our old lumberyard truck was a '98 F-150 that hit 233,000 miles before the company finally got rid of it. The tranny was rebuilt at 165,000 but the motor was never touched. It always had a pretty good lifter click.

The thing still ran decent when they got rid of it, but it was eating a quart of oil every 300 miles.

[mark v]

I tick can also be an exhaust manifold leak, I had one so bad in my Mustang GT I thought I blew the engine.

[kdr358]

Thanks, I tried the 15w-40 and no more annyoing tick i think it hopefully fixed the problem. thanks guys

[BigChevy80]

If thicker oil fixed it then it was definitely a lifter. Clicking lifters won't really hurt anything other than maybe being annoying to listen to. I don't believe I'd want to be running 15w40 in the winter time though.

[jonmark1985]

15w-40 will be fine in the winter, if you have a good battery in your van. I run 3 quarts of 20w-50 and 2 quarts of Lucas in my car all year round and never have any problems.

[RacerHog]

Look guys.....if these thing are making noise....The damage is done.....The clearance is out...So being in Illinois or in Cali is not going to make any differance in the wear....
You stillhave to careful when you suck a malt threw a straw...

[BigChevy80]

Originally Posted by jonmark1985

15w-40 will be fine in the winter, if you have a good battery in your van. I run 3 quarts of 20w-50 and 2 quarts of Lucas in my car all year round and never have any problems.

If your engine is so worn out that you have to run 20w50 in it, then OF COURSE thick oil isn't going to cause problems!! Unless you have an extremely worn engine that you just want to keep running as long as you can, there's NO earthly reason to use 20w50, or even 15w40, unless of course you have a diesel.

As far a clicking lifters go, I don't know about any damage being done. I've driven cars with clicking lifters over 100,000 miles without issue. The older Oldsmobile engines were notorious for doing it. I've also had a few Ford and Chevy V8's that did it. You can try running the valves or dumping a quart of ATF in the crankcase to try and free them up if they are sticky. I just get used to it since it generally doesn't affect the way the engine runs.

[kdr358]

I think im not going to depend on this van much more I talked to my boss and one of our electricans quit so im going to take his old 2000 E-350 super duty. 7.3 turbo diesel v8 with 95,000 on it and an auto tranny so were going the easy way.. junkyard. I dont know much about diesels but my boss mentiond that all the injectors, glow plugs, alternator and brakes were all just done so i think im getting a little christmas bonus. thanks for all the help!