turbodave,

I think you are correct. His sound was more of a "flat" sound. The rhythm is correct for the engine speed but as you said, it does not hang in there up to the 2500 rpm range before being drowned out. It could be valve train, but I would suspect a lifter that was collapsed partially would once slightly pumped up (oil pressure increase after 900 rpm) would stay pumped up a little longer. A lifter noise like that would then come back a little softer at first until it lost pressure again. His noise seemed to come back almost immediately after returning to idle.

I also noticed his noise was louder on the driver side than the passenger side. This could be something less "internal" and more "external". The reason I say this is that these engines seem to resonate any internal noises throughout the entire engine. This may be because of the entire engine being aluminum. This also makes it difficult to pinpoint the location of an internal tick.

If it were my truck, I would first inspect the exhaust (cats can tick when hot), disconnect the SAI vacuum lines to see if that changes anything, and try to inspect the flex plate.

He stated his oil pressure numbers and they seemed fair. He could use a little more pressure, but I would check those external issues first.

I'll past this on to him also.

Glad to see you care about others' problems too.

I'm new at all this and I'm a hack at best. My engine sounds great..surprisingly quiet when it's not running...and running too. It only happens when it's running for awhile - really highway driving - and I'm not sure how to describe it other than saying it sounds a bit like a diesel truck. I can feel the "tick"...although maybe you guys wouldn't describe it as a tick. I'm going to try and record it to post. I haven't tried anything yet in so far as getting someone else to listen or oil pressure and I'm going to get on that in the next day or so and will report back.

Yours sounds more like the catalytic converters ticking to me, only happens after long drives, thats when the exhaust will be its hottest.
Tap on them with a hammer, do they rattle?

Great write up, even though way over my head and I will never be able to do this, but I totally enjoy reading it yesterday and was convinced I had the same problem until I checked again today and read this

My tick is not there all the time, but it does happen only when the engine is warm.
I bought an AlCheapo sthetoscope from Harbor freight but could not isolate the noise, just listening without sthetoscope it seems as if the noise is louder under the truck.
I do have an exhuast leak (confirmed with seafoam), manifold to pipe gasket on the driver side, that noise goes away when engine is hot.
The tick is diffinitely from the engine, I have been under the truck with the sthetoscope, it is not coming from the exhaust, SAI pump looks good, filter is clean and I disconnected the plug and also vacuum lines, no affect on the noise. I did not check the flex plate yet.

I think my numbers are similar to yours, before you changed your oil pump, so probably just an old tired pump

This is what makes this forum great, thank you guys

hhalimi,

It sounds like you are taking the right steps. A good point to make is that I don't want everyone to assume that every tick they hear in their engine is a slipped sleeve. ANY internal tick usually in these engines sounds as if it is coming from everywhere. The big thing is to first determine if it is internal. Usually the next step is to get good oil pressure and then go from there.

I will say that my tick did start intermittently when hot and it almost sounded like a marble bouncing around my crank. After a couple thousand more miles, it was there all the time when hot.

Good luck, and let us know if we can help some more.

I plan to post videos of my truck running before and after this procedure. I think this will help several people determine what a slipped liner "should" sound like.

Another point to add to all of this. If you plan to do this repair, I highly suggest two pins per cylinder where possible. This also doubles your odds of screwing up your engine, but it doubles your odds of it being a longer lasting repair. Imagine if one set screw was able to back itself out. If you check them during every oil change and do find one missing, you can reinstall a new one. Of course you will have to pull your oil pan to reinstall, but you won't have to worry about your holes being misaligned. I would think that these liners also rotate a little while they move around too. I'm not sure about this, but it would seem possible.

Also it is amazing how much "grip" the piston rings have on the sleeve. Anyone that has replaced their rod bearings with the engine in the truck will know what I mean. After replacing the rod bearings, trying to move your rod back down that 1/2" to the crank takes a lot of force. This indicates to me that the rings have plenty of "grip" to move these sleeves when hot.

Vids of my engine before and after

2003 Land Rover Discovery ticking before pinning sleeves - YouTube

2003 Land Rover Discovery after pining the sleeves - YouTube

It is worth noting that my warm idle oil pressure is now around 20 psi. I'm not sure why it stayed so low after initial warm up.

Btw, that's my dad at the end of the second video. I couldn't have done it without him. Well, yes I could have, but it sure was a lot more fun with him. He taught me a lot about fixing things my whole life and also showed me that anything can be fixed, you just gotta have some balls every now and again. Big thumbs up Pops!

Thanks Dad!!!

Well, if that doesn't prove it, I don't know what does...

So, if 95% of the "tickers" are valvetrain / cam related (recent claim), then Rudawaski and myself are claiming two of the remaining 5% spots...
You guys better hurry up and do this fix, because after the next three, then the next 95 guys have to concentrate on the valvetrain and not pin your liners... :)

Great work Rudawski and Rudawski Sr.

I do have an exhuast leak (confirmed with seafoam), manifold to pipe gasket on the driver side, that noise goes away when engine is hot.

So when are you going to replace those gaskets?