Valve Seals? Let me know what you think

[jaluhn83]

Sounds like a lifter or rocker problem.

Valve seal woln't do that.

 

[chris142]

Flat cam?

 

[Banks7.3IDI]

Yea, I took the dipstick mount off today and the fuel filter, got all the cover bolts and nuts off except for one under the wait to start solenoid mount and the one up under the fuel filter...got too dark to work efficiently. Well not auto mechanics, Ag Mechanics....welding and ****......they teach small engine repair, like little briggs, but nothing more. Still I know enough to work my way around the 7.3IDI...trying to get the god forsaken passenger valve cover makes me wish I had an inline cummins. haha

 

[Banks7.3IDI]

And I did think that...maybe the cam flattened I don't know..hope not

 

[jaluhn83]

No. Flat cam / worn guides etc doesn't happen overnight like that. The big pointer to me is it being fine one day and clattering like a sob the next. That to me says collapsed lifter. Most likely on the exhaust side judging from the cuffing.

Valve being off the seat doesn't make sense either - I can see it seeing poorly off and on eventually leading to seat damage and noise, but not consistently and suddenly. If it was far enough off be that bad then it would almost certainly have smacked the piston and you'd have many more interesting and depressing noises.

Pull the valve covers and check all the rockers for wear / damage / etc. Make a note of any that look different in any way. Chances are one will have some obviously different wear.

Also helpful to start the engine and idle with the valve covers off to watch / listen to the rocker motion. Supposedly you can isolate a bad lifter by using a screwdriver on similar to press lightly on the pushrod end of the rocker with the engine running - a bad lifter will show a shock felt through the screwdriver rather than the normal smooth lift. Never personally tried this though.

If there's nothing obviously under the valve covers I'd run some seafoam (or other oil treatment) and change the oil then see if that helps. If it does fix the problem you've got at least one bad lifter and I'd plan on doing the whole lot of them eventually.

 

[Banks7.3IDI]

That's what I was thinking...if it happened immediately I figured it had to have been some simple-ish failure on a part of the valvetrain..a collapsed lifter would make perfect sense. It happened at the first cold start of the morning. My lifters always ticked a little....or at least something in the valve train did

Even though it's a school night...I couldn't resist going out and finishing removing the valve cover and it was immediately apparent that the most frontward rocker arm and most rearward rocker arm on the passenger side had a tad bit of play...I don't know which is the intake but that is the one that started this issue, but whichever is exhaust is definitely one of the suckers that's been causing ticking in the engine for a while now. I took the first two rocker arms off and inspected the rods, which are not copper at the top..they're exactly the same top and bottom, and they're perfectly true. Now it's down getting to the lifter.

Any help or tutorials?

 

[icanfixall]

The pushrods will not be copper colored after many miles of run time on your engine so keep them seprated and up in a box. What I did was turned a box upside down. Cut 16 slots in it. numbered them and placed all the pushrods in those locations as if they were each cylinder head. Make sure you list front and back of the heads too. Look at the vavle springs and the exhaust ports in the heads. You will see which valve is which easily that way.. On the intake manifold near the heads is the number of the cylinder cast directly into the manifold plus.. On the passenger side of the intake air horn is the fireing order cast into the manifold. Now to reach the lifters you need to remove the injection pump but not the pump gear cover that the pump bolts to. Do not remove tha cover. The injection pump gear is under that and you may ruin the gear timing. If that happens we can help you get number 1 top dead center and fix the gear timing easy because the valve cover is off where you ca watch the valve action to tell you the piston is coming up to tdc. But the intake must come of. Then the valley pan comes off too. you will need to buy a new one of those because they are a single crush fit part. Now that all thats done your looking at the spider that holds the lifter alignment part in place. These are refered to as gog bones cause they kinda look like one. One the spider is removed the lifter willl easily lift out. Ebay has them al the time for sale at arounf $150.00. Our lifter fits the psd. The hummers.. The chevies and many more engines. Be sure you buy the needle bearing roller lifter and not the bushing bearing roller lifter of yesteryear. Watch the back of the valley pan for that plug with the 3/8 hex in it. Thats the drain and the hold down for the back of the pan. Those are no longer available from any sourse but me.. I bought about 12% of the remaining ford stock many years ago. These are easy to misplace too. A couple of member forgot to save this plug and found out they had a horrible oil leak back there. If you don't understand whats going on there you wont thnk there is supposed to be anything in that hole. That drain plug will only drain fluids out the back of the bellhousing flange and down on top of the starter. It like a special tunnel back there and can only drain that direction. Dought it just pour some water or oil down the hole when the pan is off. The worque on the rocker bolts is 27 lbs I think but other may chime in on the exact torque. Befor you remove the injection pump mark the pump to the housing joint with a center punch mark. Then all you have to do is align the two half circles to get the timing back to where it was before the pump removal.

 

[Hydro-idi]

Thanks for the write up Gary. I suspect your lifters are wearing out or one collapsed all of a sudden.
I have been dealing with an intermittant tick noise and slight woohhfing noise from the intake for quite some time now. Once the engine gets nice and hot, it is almost embarrassing because everyone asks me what is wrong with my engine lol. I suspect, along with many oilburners members, that I got a worn lifter or two causing this valvetrain noise. I just hope it hasn't done any damage over the years because it has been doing it for a while now.
Anyways it sounds like you have a good handle on your mechanics. Keep us posted on your findings.
Now a question for Gary........which lifter set do you recommend to buy on ebay??? Falcon???

 

[hesutton]

http://www.oilburners.net/forums/showthread.php?21301-Here-is-what-that-CHUFF-noise-in-the-exhaust-means&highlight=Jaybee

Older, but helpful post on chuffing from the intake or exhaust.


Heath

 

[Hydro-idi]

http://www.oilburners.net/forums/showthread.php?21301-Here-is-what-that-CHUFF-noise-in-the-exhaust-means&highlight=Jaybee

Older, but helpful post on chuffing from the intake or exhaust.


Heath

Thanks for the info Heath. Sure wish we were able to view those pictures and video though. Too many OB members spoil us with those helpful additions lol

 

[Knuckledragger]

Could be a bent pushrod, too. Same sound as a collapsed lifter, but it can go away because the lifter will fill with oil to take up slack (to a point). Do all of the easiest checks first, like compression/leakdown test and cracking the injector lines. Next, take off the valve covers and visually check things. With luck, you can fix it without removing the head(s).

 

[jaluhn83]

I think I got my lifters through autozone online of all things.... New in box Melling parts and the updated roller bearing style too. Sometimes you can actually get some good stuff from the chinese junk stores lol.

I agree with the logic that a bent pushrod could cause the same symptoms, but that still leaves the fact that it suddenly showed up - I've never heard of a pushrod just randomly bending, only seen it caused by valves getting jammed up somehow.