I need to know how to properly fix a ticking valve. It only starts ticking when the engine gets up to operating temperature and the oil pressure goes down. It is one of the front valves, and I was thinking about just going old school and taking the valve cover off and running the engine and then tighten down the ticking valve until it stops, because I dunno what else to do. Putting new lifters in is out of the question. Should I do this or is there a better way to do it? Also how do you get the plug wire loom off of the front valve cover?

Thanks for the help!

By the way, my car is a 92 bonnie SE with 198K+ miles

I don't think the "old school" method will work any more. Unless I am mistaken, tappets have not been adjustable for many many years. What weight oil are you using? Maybe going to a heavier weight oil will help.

Just one noisy lifter?I would pull the valve cover and check if one valve had too much lash.Years ago i adjusted the valve lash (a bunch) on a Chevy 305 which had hydraulic lifters.The engine had a lot of miles.It quieted them down alot and gave a nice boost in low end pickup.Marvel mystery oil has worked for sticky lifters on my cars in the past but that may not be the solution to this particular problem.

So if I torqued the valve to the correct seting that would fix it right? (If one got loose over the 198K miles) And if none are loose then I got another problem, right again?

i did this on a 2.8muti-port you do a oil change and when filling add 1 lees quart of oil and instead add a quart of tranny fluid then run for about 1000 miles the drain and go back to oil

the detergent in the tranny fluid cleans the in side of the block

So it clears out the carbon buildup??



That might be better way then smokin my neighbors out with topenginecleaner

RyFly05, looks like you are getting good advice.

For what it'* worth, here is my 2 cents too: I doubt that your problem will be related to anything that "top end cleaning" (combustion chambers & valves) would help. UNLESS, you have gummy deposits on the valve stems, such as would be caused by a slow coolant leak into the intake system. I did have that exact thing happen to mine, during the intake failure (-other threads) I did the "top end cleaning" as well as oil detergent treatment, and the combination of the two fixed mine.

BUT, if you are not loosing any coolant, then my guess is that one of your hydraulic lifters has a higher "bleed down rate" than the others. (-especially since it occurs after warm-up). In my mind the most likely cause is that the check valve assembly within that lifter is worn. Another possibility could be that the lifter mechanism is a little too dirty or gummy. If the later is the case, then treatment with a "high detergent" product may help. There are a lot of such products out there on the "automotive snake oil shelfs." (I have no experience with how well transmission fluid works, but I have heard of it being used)

If cleaning tricks don't work, then you will probably find that you will have to "fortify" the viscosity of your oil. Higher weight oil may help, but a "viscosity index improver" will be far more effective.

Thanks guys for all the help. I guess I will just try and put some kind of detergent in the oil and see if that fixes it. It sounds like taking the valve cover off and re-torquing the valve isnt the problem so I wont bother.

I've got a similar prob, only opposite. I've got a ticking valve on start up occasionally. After the car warms up, the ticking stops. Any guesses on that?