Wanna hear a good one!

A few days ago I noticed a small tick-tick from the front right of my '92 SSE valve cover. No doubt about it, that is lifter noise. Guessing (hoping, really!) that it was just gummed up in its bore a little I poured in a can of Marvel Mystery Oil (no joke, I've used that funky stuff for years on gummed up lifters- works well!). I was about 50 miles out of town at the time so I thought that by the time I got back home it may be cleared up...........NOT. A friend wandered up the driveway tonight and I told him that it looked like I was going to have to go in after that lifter to replace it (I hated to even think about it cause I just replaced the intake manifold gasket and could have easily done the lifter thing at the time).

Anyway, after he left I decided to rev her to 4,500 rpm or so a few times to see if I could unstick the lifter (I was kind of pissed at the time anyway). On the second "punch" , just as I was about to let off the gas I heard and felt two real quick, successive knocks from the engine. Sounded like someone took a real small hammer and banged twice! I thought, "oh crap, what have I done?". As I eased off the gas, I noticed that the lifter noise was gone. Just for the heck of it, I gunned her real good a couple more times. Quiet as a mouse, and my slight "quiver" at idle has cleared up too. Go figure! End of story.

Wow man, thats cool. glad to hear that the actions you performed while pissed payed off! Really though, im glad you got rid of the problems....my lifters were knocking among many other noises from the motor so i took it in to be fully rebuilt. Lator

*writes down what to do tommarow* Oh... hehe yeah Ill have to try that one hehe. Havent used it in my oil yet just in my gas... * Gets Excited?!* I hope I am lucky as you were...

ruskybear,

You use Marvel Mystery Oil in your gas? Oh, you tease . Your exhaust pipes must resemble a Tomahawk missle launch when you punch it.

Your supposed to use it in your gas it works great

Many of the older, better-known oil treatments on the market do not make claims nearly so lavish as the new upstarts. Old standbys like Bardahl, Rislone and Marvel Mystery Oil, instead offer things like "quieter lifters," "reduced oil burning" and a "cleaner engine." Most of these products are made up of solvents and detergents designed to dissolve sludge and carbon deposits inside your engine so they can be flushed or burned out. Wynn'* Friction Proofing Oil, for example, is 83 percent kerosene. Other brands use naphthalene, xylene, acetone and isopropanol. Usually, these ingredients will be found in a base of standard mineral oil.

In general, these products are designed to do just the opposite of what the PTFE (Teflon) and zinc phosphate additives claim to do. Instead of leaving behind a "coating" or a "plating" on your engine surfaces, they are designed to strip away such things. All of these products will strip sludge and deposits out and clean up your engine, particularly if it is an older, abused one. The problem is, unless you have some way of determining just how much is needed to remove your deposits without going any further, such solvents also can strip away the boundary lubrication layer provided by your oil. Overuse of solvents is an easy trap to fall into, and one which can promote harmful metal-to-metal contact within your engine. As a general rule of thumb these products had their place and were at least moderately useful on older automobile and motorcycle engines of the Fifties and Sixties, but are basically unneeded on the more efficient engine designs of the past two decades.

I had the same problem with ticks in my throttle response and clicking lifters (because the car had PLENTY of time to sludge up: The car had 25,000 miles in 1995 and had 41k in 2003). WE put a little fancy stuff in the oil for one fround, but it was still there untill one day i decided to see what my car could do and gunned it from a stop on an entrance ramp. Its been pepy-er ever since. I dunno what it does, but it was like this engine just needed to stretch its legs a bit, since its been couped up so long, and it worked wonders....

Dr. Jay,

Thank you for the informative post. We appreciate thoughtful info.

Your welcome Compyelc4. Ya know what I was starting to get a little discouraged from posting info like that anymore, almost seemed like nobody noticed. I remember one post (I won't give specifics) but I said "Hey you should A-B-C" and nobody responded. Then like 3 posts later someone else said "Hey you should A-B-C" and dude said "Oh great thanks I'll do that!" like huh?! haha oh well people get caught up in typing something and only read the last post

Instead of directly quoting from a website you should summarize a little. At the least give the author credit.