I've rebuilt three 4.6's...two of them had lifters that had collapsed or the clips holding them together popped off. One had four lifters collapsed...and sounded just like yours. And after l drowned my 4.0...it sounded very similar to yours. One guy listening to it, thought it was a diesel...lol...but it ran pretty good. Drove it to the UP, 1200 miles round trip and ended up putting another 10K on it before pulling the plug.

My recommendation would be...do an oil change, use T4 15W40...not T6...and see if you notice even the slightest difference. A slipped sleeve will not change with oil change...but fresh oil...put into a bad lifter...will make a slight difference. Really, really listen to it...the way it is now and get a good feel for when the noise comes on/starts, gets the loudest, does it get a lot worse/louder under acceleration, etc...and then change oil. Also, take a length of hose and listen at different areas of the engine...to see if you can pin-point noise location.

 

Ah man, I like where you are at. I was thinking valve train noise as well. Thank you for the oil recommendation as well.

To be clear, are you saying do the hard core listening before, and THEN do an oil change?

You have me thinking maybe I should in fact pull the heads as part of the treasure trove is a few (yes I said few) sets of heads. However, at the rate I’m going on putting miles on cars, it will take me 3 or more years to get to 10k miles. If it lasts 10k miles in its current state, I’m doing nothing other than change oil and by then I’ll definitely have another engine built. If even at half that there is catastrophic failure, meh.

Either way, it seems order of completion is to get a baseline of noise, change the oil, and determine if things are getting worse or at a steady state and tolerable for a while.

Thanks for the input!

And thinking more happy thoughts, both the functional D2s were on farm truck duty the other day as we have to drive the boss down to the pasture based on one of the horses getting spooked and stomping on one of her feet (she’s now in a cast for a few weeks), so it’s all hands on deck to keep the horses going. Couple that to a few inches of snow that came- and more to come over the next day or so- and as always, I’ve got a full plate.





Princess Fussy Pants drove the silver one around the pasture for a bit after the chores and had some fun, and Captain Obvious is getting to where he drives the Alveston with minimal supervision (only around the property). Couple this to the boss saying she thinks she would like one as her farm truck to keep from tearing up her nice RRS, and I’m wondering if I’ll actually get to have one…

 

Damn, this is motivating me to get back to work on mine!

 

This is funny. Now that everyone is having to help the boss so much with her being gimpy, we drive Discos to the pasture to get work done. As one might expect, the children of the corn always request to drive.

The funny part is my goony goo goo butt fits pretty well in the back seat. Due to the stadium seating, there is even plenty of headroom.



Probably no D2 content this weekend as again, it’s all hands on deck to help the boss with the horses, but in the background I’m trying to figure out next steps and prepare so I can figure out if the silver one will make it to Ouray for the Rally. Garage doors will be installed in the coming weeks and I have some Dutch doors I need to build (and a huge slider for the divider) and then I’ll be working hard to organize all the parts and get all the tools transferred over to the barn.

Again, I’m really having fun despite my time being very stretched for the time being with all the other goings on…

 

If it's not overheating idling around the place especially as it gets warmer it's gonna be fine. I'd do new hoses, WP and maybe rad as those can all be reused on new motor just as a you know they are new to you if you want to be extra safe. Can try some liquidmoly valvetrain stuff next oil change to see if that helps quiet a lifter some as well.

 

Yes, study the noise over a few different start ups, at operating temps, road test, etc. Using hose to better identify noise location. Really get a good 'feel' for how it sounds...then change oil.

Do the hoses get super hard or stay hard longer than expected, after being shutdown over night?

And, are you reading coolant temps with scan tool?

You've checked for gases in coolant, and it's not turning yellow and if the hoses aren't getting super hard...l'd have a hard time believing it has a slipped liner or head gasket issue.

When l had the collapsed lifters...also had some that came a part, retainer clip popped out of top of lifter.

 

Agreed on hoses, WP, and radiator. Cool part (no pun intended) is a brand new in box radiator came with the haul. I was thinking all the same. It doesn’t break 195F idling around the property.

One hinky thing is when it hits 195F, the condenser fan kicks on. Not sure what that is all about. On your other questions:

- I’ll check in the morning on hard hoses

- Coolant temp are through a nifty gauge he inserted in the hose on the MAF side. Seems to work pretty well, but I still ordered another UG as I know those.

You are getting me to think I should pull the valve covers and check them. I don’t think that’s too much of a hassle.

 

highly recommend the golden rovers UG mount. have it in both my discos and very pleased with it

 

So with @The Deputy giving me a bit of insight, I might try and get the lifters out.

I found this cool video as a way to clean them:


I also found some threads here about how I might still have to pull the heads to get to the lifters out as they may have mushroomed.

This one was also quite helpful:


So we’ll see. This engine may actually not be wasted at all. I thinking a compression test will help, so I’m looking at getting a tester and see what I can find out by cylinder…

 

OK this has GOT to be a lifter issue. @The Deputy I think is correct.

The hoses are not pressurized when fully cold.

This is a bone cold start video (engine was at 60F or so.

https://longtallsallygs.smugmug.com/...ry/i-8s7wnBp/A

Now the debate becomes, do I roll the dice and pull the intakes and rocker arms and see if I can get the lifters out? SHould I still do a compression test to narrow to the appropriate cylinders?

The only reason this is a debate is because I just don’t think I’m going to have the time between now and the Rally to pull the heads if that’s needed and if the worst, swap engines. Otherwise I could care less and would start to dive in immediately.

The girls took it down to the pasture and when up to temp, the sound from the first video came back.