Lifters ticking

[Vilius]

Hello guys,
My 2003 5.3 Tahoe LT 4x4 (160000 mileage) has a loud ticking/tapping sound in the morning even with a warm ambient temperature (25C, ~75F). It started ticking after an oil change and it lasts ~5-7mins until the engine reach 185F temperature. Then ticking sound stops and it never start again during the trip. Some times it could start ticking for about 20sec even after 5mins of the rest.
I'm changing the oil regularly, using 5w-30 Liqui Moly + Acdelco or Wix oil filters.
Oil pressure: 40-45psi at cold idle in the morning, 30-35psi hot idle, 50psi at WOT.
At first i've tried to flush the engine with motor flush, tried different oil grades, additives for lifters cleaning, Seafoam spray, Mystery Marvel Oil, ATF flush - nothing. The sound was slightly better after using some additive, but after couple days it starts loud ticking again.
Then I've changed pick up tube o-ring, cleaned some dirt in the crankcase because there was a minor floating in the pressure gauge at cold engine (40psi, 50psi, 55psi, 40psi....). But it didn't helped.
Then I've tried to disassemble push rods and rocker arms, cleaned all the dirt under the valve covers sprayed the cleaner down the lifters, cleaned push rods and rocker arms. Four intake push rods was slightly worn out behind the rocker arm. After that hard cleaning procedure, suddenly I've got 20psi oil pressure, changed the oil and filter and the pressure back to normal 30-35psi when hot.
That helped for about three days. There was no ticking sound at all at cold idle, then after three days it started ticking for about 15-20sec and now it started loud ticking again for about 2-3mins in the morning

If understand correctly it is not enough of oil for top of the engine until it gets warm and thinner.

Does the high volume oil pump would help or do I need to change the lifters because they are clogged with a dirt?
That strange pressure gauge floating (40-55psi: 15psi range) at cold idle is still here until the engine warms up. Also I do not have 40psi at hot idle (only 30-35psi). Is there a reason to change the pump?
Thanks for your help in advance.

 

[Larryjb]

When I had my heads rebuilt a couple of years ago, the mechanic started to show me how to rebuild my lifters. When he couldn't even get the plunger out, he told me it'd be best to just replace all the lifters. From the looks of things, lifters or rockers would fail before rods.

While you may need to change your lifters, I can't see how they'd be the cause of low oil pressure. I'd try changing just the oil filter again. If that helps, that suggests that something is clogging up your oil filter.

 

[Vilius]

When I had my heads rebuilt a couple of years ago, the mechanic started to show me how to rebuild my lifters. When he couldn't even get the plunger out, he told me it'd be best to just replace all the lifters. From the looks of things, lifters or rockers would fail before rods.

While you may need to change your lifters, I can't see how they'd be the cause of low oil pressure. I'd try changing just the oil filter again. If that helps, that suggests that something is clogging up your oil filter.

Hi Larry, I've changed 5-6 oil filters again and again after each cleaning process with Seafoam, MMO and other additives and the fresh filter didn't increase the pressure. Fresh 5w-30 oil + new filter = 32psi at hot idle. Fresh 10w-30 dino oil + new filter = 35psi at hot idle. I've got once 25psi straight after the hard cleaning with spray cleaner (similar to B12 chemtool as you are using in USA) down the push rod, but that was the dirt which clogged the filter. Now there is one week after the fresh oil change and I have a loud ticking again.

I do not have coolant loss.

My thoughts are that the oil do not reach the top of the engine on time because I have only 45psi on cold start up and the lifters and rockers are ticking. That insufficient oil volume or pressure caused the wear for the top of the intake push rod in 3,4,5,6 cylinders (picture attached)

 

[iamdub]

How'd it look under the valve covers? You may have a lot of gunk in your engine that the additives are breaking loose, clogging up the tiny passages in the lifters. I'm guessing this because you're using cleaners and you cleaned it out manually and it "fixed" it for a few days, but then returned.

 

[tom3]

Piston slap? Pretty common on the early LS motors.

 

[Vilius]

How'd it look under the valve covers? You may have a lot of gunk in your engine that the additives are breaking loose, clogging up the tiny passages in the lifters. I'm guessing this because you're using cleaners and you cleaned it out manually and it "fixed" it for a few days, but then returned.

There was a lot of black gunk. It took me 4hrs to clean everything with a wire toothbrush and three cans of spray cleaner. I think I'll try to spray two more cans down the push rod holes, let it soak for a while, turn on and let it idle 10-15mins with an engine flush additive and change the oil one more time.

I know that famous piston slap are common on these engines, but I don't think so that it is in my case because when I start the engine the loudest ticking noise lasts only 15-20sec (ticking all the lifters+rockers without oil). Then that noise becomes more quite but it's still there (some of the lifters+rockers got the oil) and after 2-3mins there is no noise at all (all the lifters and rockers got the oil and they are happy). I had a couple noisy lifters or rockers for about 10mins this morning while I've been driving.

Probably I will have to remove my heads soon and replace all the lifters because the HV pump will not help if they are clogged up.

 

[Vilius]

I think I've found the problem yesterday - one of the famous cracked Castech heads just landed in my yard. Two pictures below. Am I right?
I do not understand why I do not have coolant loss then. Probably I'm loosing very small amount of coolant and it is hard to see... Now I understand why that ticking came back in 3 days: I've cleaned glycerol from the lifters and after 3 days they've filled with glycerol again. Anyway the heads must be replaced asap.

 

[iamdub]

I think I've found the problem yesterday - one of the famous cracked Castech heads just landed in my yard. Two pictures below. Am I right?
I do not understand why I do not have coolant loss then. Probably I'm loosing very small amount of coolant and it is hard to see... Now I understand why that ticking came back in 3 days: I've cleaned glycerol from the lifters and after 3 days they've filled with glycerol again. Anyway the heads must be replaced asap.

View attachment 256385 View attachment 256386

Yup. Classic spot for the failure. That black buildup you spent 4 hours scrubbing is likely caused by the residues in the coolant that mixed with the oil. The watery part just steamed off so there's no milkshake in your oil. But, the watered-down oil still did it's damage and the worn pushrod tips are likely caused by that. Using engine flush additives may be doing more harm than good. They break down the sludge in larger chunks which can clog the smaller passages. It's more ideal to just run quality oil and let the detergents in it slowly dissolve away the sludge over time. Or, pull the motor and scrub it all out manually. I did exactly this about 1.5 years ago on an '05.

 

[Vilius]

Hello guys. New years = new problems Installed both new 706 remanufactured Castech heads, bolts, gaskets, lifters from Rockauto last September and today after 4 months and 3000miles I have one cracked head again and the coolant leaking from exhaust manifold bolt. Nice. Do I need to stop installing 706 heads and try to find 862 heads? I thought new heads should be ok at least for 30000-50000mi even the Castech ones.

 

[Larryjb]

You are the 2nd guy I heard from who installed heads ordered from afar and had one crack. The first guy had heads shipped from a shop.

I had my heads rebuilt at a local shop that was recommended by a good friend of mine. The main reason I went with a local shop was so that I could go back to them, avoid the hassle of shipping etc. You may want to consider this as an option. It certainly cost more to have them rebuilt locally though.

The other guy who had heads shipped from a machine shop was treated fairly well I think, but he still had to wait for shipping. I'm not sure if they wanted him to ship the cracked head back. I could see that a local shop might not work out in your situation, but perhaps a shop that ships out heads might do better.