Going through my lifters, taking them apart and cleaning them up before putting the valley pan and intake back on. Looky what I found. Had a flat spot on it so I kept turning it and the rest of the roller suuuper messed up. Maybe thats what made the initial noise I heard from back there.
From what I can see through the hole in the valley, the camshaft somehow doesnt look messed up. I know flat spots happen when the rollers stick but I wonder what caused that horrible pitting. Any thoughts?
Probably just got stuck. Did your truck ever sit for a long period of time?
Even still, I can’t seem to keep lifters in these trucks. But I keep them absolutely screaming… Had to do lifters on my 6.9, as one started ticking. A little while later I blew a head gasket, and found one head to be warped completely out of spec. So I 7.3 turbo and 5 speed swapped my 86 Bullnose, and never looked back. Whole different truck after that. Still needs quite a bit of work…
I currently have a ticking on my 7.3 which is a very light, almost clicking sound. Not like a glow plug controller though, which I don’t have anyways…
I am at this point convinced it is an exhaust leak, I have dug into the exhaust some, replacing manifolds, but no luck with that. New injectors. I have noticed that it doesn’t tick with the engine cold… and it doesn’t always tick… but usually it does, if the engine is warm. Never when cold though…
And I put lifters in it, at the time thinking it might be a lifter tick. I was evidently wrong. Lifters were one of the few things I did not replace in my engine, when I half-ass rebuilt it. But anyways, I found one lifter to have some scratches on the roller, and a hard spot in the roller… so I’m still glad I replaced them. I soaked the new lifters in oil for a month (only a few days is necessary) before putting them in the engine.