Hi MikeDDD,

I did find a solution but I only have a theory as to what is actually wrong. But it only costs me $14 more an oil change so that'll do for me.

Let's start with the solution. It's rather simple. As you can see I had the exact same noise but since doing this I haven't heard it in 40k miles.

Change your oil using these steps:
1. Add to oil and follow the instructions on the bottle

2. Change oil using not full synthetic

3. Use

4. Add to oil

Take it for a test drive and it's gone! I tried over a dozen different combinations to get to this(including but not limited to using royal purple, BG, and MMO) and for some reason it's what worked.

Theory behind why I think it works. Remember I said "Theory".

What you are hearing is a lifter tick. I tried changing out one of the timing chain tensioners thinking it was them but that didn't do anything. I took it to 3-4 different land rover specialists and they all said they would have to take the whole engine apart to troubleshoot it costing $3-5k. For some reason I thought paying someone to endlessly search for a problem was a poor use of my money.

What causes the lifter tick is one of a few things:
Loss of compression: early on I found someone saying they heard what was described as the same noise and they went and tightened all of their manifold bolts and it went away. I spend a Saturday trying to tighten those bolts but they are near impossible to get to and when I did none of mine felt even a bit loose.
Change in oil: the oils that people are putting in these cars is somewhat different than the oils back in 2006 when the car was made and even earlier when the engine was designed. Some said it could be the change in the amount of Zinc in the oil.

Regardless all of this led to the oil pressure in certain parts of the engine not being consistent enough causing one of the lifters to not quite do it's job.

Why this solution works. Motor medic flushes out whatever might be inhibiting that lifter from moving easily. And Restore as it says on the can "Restores Compression" on those bolts that are hard to get to or wherever else might be loosing compression.

In the end I found the problem to be what's called a "type writer tick" and happens in Ford engines. At the time of the LR3's manufacturing the Jag engine the company was owned by Ford. Hint's why the problem is consistent with some other Ford engines. The solution I found on a youtube video's comments where a fellow with a new BOSS mustang had the tick and was trying to solve it. In the comments some dude just said "Try this" and had a link to "Restore". In a last ditch effort I tried it and it worked. Trust me I didn't believe it would either seeing as it's a $9 bottle.

Hope this works for you! Full disclosure: i'm not a mechanic, i've never worked for Land Rover, and i'm not liable if this doesn't work. But it's definitely worth a shot. Do us all a solid and report back if it does!

Cheers,
_av

 

That is a very interesting theory! And I'm glad it's worked for you! Thank you also for a prompt reply!

I am lucky in the sense that my partner is a mechanic/body man and is a very talented mechanic. We bought this car with 150,000 for $2000. (The lady thought the transmission was going bad, and so did we, until we did further research... and I'm blabbing) Anyway, we have done an insane amount of work to it, and brought it basically back to life.


Reguarding the oil changes, when we first got it, (before we drove it from Long Island - Colorado 6 times) we used mobile one 5w-30, always with a quart of Lucas heavy duty oil stabilizer. I have always sworn by this stuff. So as the miles added up pretty quickly we started hearing that tapping noise only at low rpm's and for a quick second as we accelerated. We decided to start using Mobil one 10w-40 high mileage oil and the noise seemed to be noticibly quieter and less frequent. Oh and it also seemed to happen when the oil was clean and new because after about a thousand miles or so it was reappear.

Lately since since my latest oil change in which I used 10-40, and the Lucas of course, it has been almost constant besides when it's first started and when it's not super hot out.

I'm really not sure if it's because of the latest road trip that I took to Colorado with a female companion in which, she was probably the worst driver I've ever driven with, and let's just say my baby got a 4000 mile beating, lol.

Well, I'm kind of hoping it is a lifter tick because that means it's reparable.. I'm not sure if I'm willing to put the thinner 5-30 in it quite yet, only because of how high the miles are, and from what happened before. but thank you very much for your advice. Im going to have to fill my partner Rich in and see when he's willing to get frustrated for a couple hours and check the lifters, lol.

Also, with the amount of work we've done to this car, we have become pretty knowledgeable about a quite a few things so if you have any questions, maybe we could help.

 

You do what you feel is best but before spending a half day inspecting the lifters you could try it for the cost of an oil change.

I did try lucas and thicker oil. They did make it quieter but didn't solve it which is why I continued to look for a solution.

The lifter is ticking because it isn't getting oil. Thinner oil is able to get in all of the cracks of the engine including around a lifter. Lucas is basically just putting syrup in your engine, it will quiet everything down but not solve the problem.

Like I said you do you. Good luck.

 

Sorry forgot to mention that I'm going to Walmart to buy the engine restore to add and see if it helps! My grandfather used to put that in my first Honda when I started driving back in the day, and his cars religiously... hopefully it helps! I'll update

 

If you have 10W-40 and lucas in there already who knows if it will work. I think a lot of the magic comes from the engine flush and using the dealer recommended Castrol 5W-30 synthetic blend. But do let us know.

 

I'm amazed. Drove home from Wal-Mart with a very loud tapping noise. Put the engine restore in, (with the 10-40 and Lucas that is currently in there) and within 2 minutes... GONE! It has been 300 miles since and haven't heard a thing. Thank you!

 

Glad to hear it worked!

If anyone else tries this to solve the tapping noise please do report back. But so far it sounds like using Restore is a fix.

 

that or a tired tensioner

 

If the Jag engine's timing chain guides and tensioners so seldom need changed then this link would not have been created Tmingi chain and tensioner replacement. If you go through the whole thing you'll see it is the same engine we have.

Look at the damage to the guides. Bear in mind that if you do go down the road to check your chain guides, it's a very involved task needing the front engine cover taken off.

 

That might be the same engine but there were updates made to it at least when used in the Land Rover LR3 HSE V8 as the timing chain tensioners are aluminum with only the part that touches chain being plastic. These are the updated parts that are not near as brittle and subject to fail. The original engine in the 1998 Jag referenced in that post had fully plastic tensioners. The noise that we are solving using Restore is not timing chain tensioner failure. That is more of a chain drag against the cover when revving at slow RPMs rather than a lifter tap.

And yes, swapping these out is no walk in the park.