Greeting to all! My first car ever is, as you have a guessed, a 92 DeVille. When i bought the car about 6 months ago it had not been maintained very well. Currently, i have 1 problem that might pose a problem for this road trip that i am planning.

The issue is one or multiple failing hydraulic lifters. I made a couple of oil changes using regular 10W40, rather than the recommended 10W30, with "Seafoam" cleaner. After the oil change, the rattling from the lifter(s) quieted down to where it was barely noticeable. I am dew to change the oil again within the next few days. However, yesterday the noise increased again to where it was initially when my problem began.

Curently, i am hard pressed for time and am unable to change the lifters before the trip. If anyone could offer some advice as to what I can do or what to look out for on such a trip, it would be greatly apprecieated. Thanks alot!

 

I would get professional help. Don't take a long trip knowing there is a problem.

 

i have pondered answering this post, because of NOT ENOUGH INFO!!!.... however, here is what i would do...... buy a quart of red marvel mistery oil... ad to your oil now a pint, only!...... run your vehicle 60 to 100 miles.... remove oil, and filter. refill to capacity the normal 5 quarts. now NOT KNOWING THE MILES.... if over 75000 mi find your self like a Castrol (for engines over 75000 mi) 5W 30 .... ONLY..... after full add a pint of marvel mistery oil. take you trip. good luck.... please when you post again, we need ALL the info of the car..... including miles.....
keep us posted properly lol
rickyd

oh this only applies if it is valves tapping, and not rods knocking...... another thing... do not use 10W40!!!

 

failing hydraulic lifters on a '92 seems weird at best. Did the car not get a change of oil for the past 10 years? is the lubrication system clogged with sludge? I say this cuz of your sentence that I bolded.
If the problem was sludge (not enough details provided), there is a thread about using transmission fluid to clean out an engine .. an old GM / Ford procedure. you may want to find it, read it.

If, IF, the lifters are oil starved, you also probably have oil starved cams.
If the lifters are making noise, you must know that the valves and cams are getting hammered.


2,600 mile trip ? I wouldnt go anywhere with a car having hydraulic lifter issues ..
I certainly would drive it EASYYYY ..
I surely would warm the engine up before going places ..
certainly, I be carrying Greyhound money, just in case.

 

THIS IS WHAT I MEAN ABOUT NOT ENOUGH INFO......
HOW MANY MILES ON CAR... DO YOU HAVE ANY MAINTAINCE RECORDS... IS THE ISSUE A SEVERE TAP, TAPS, OR A KNOCK... ONE OR MANY???? IS IT ONE, OR IS IT MANY...? IF STOMPER SAID NOT TO TAKE ON TRIP, HE APPEARENTLY THINKS IT IS MORE SERIOUS THAN I DO..... COURSE, WE DONT REALLY KNOW.....INFO!!!
ok, enough said...... sorry, i had to vent
rickyd

 

Rick,

the severity depends on the cause of the noise.

if oil is flowing, he could make the trip .. with careful driving.

if the lifters are OIL STARVED, the car will not make it for 2,600 miles of high speed .. they will simply seize and that will be it.

it is not unheard to see oil starvation on cams and lifters, specially in older and poorly maintained engines.
he can always pull the covers and do a visual quick check for oil flow .. maybe.

when i am in the mood to gamble, we pull out a roulette wheel and play for pennies .. driving 2,600 miles with a questionable engine is just too much of a gamble for me. He may be of a different attitude.

Should the car break 1,000+ miles away, you know the car is done for .. its not coming home ever .. way to expensive to tow .. you kiss it g'bye .. I dont get attached to machines so I wont spend money based on emotions.

BTW, why not 10W40?
I rather like 20W50 + a pint of engine honey in the high mileage engines.

 

stomper....... i guess, just one mans opinion.... i was a firm believer in 10w40 untill i talked to who i thought was one of the best in the bizz. he has steered me away from 10W40 in my vehicle, and i might add, much to my dismay. as it goes, you know the N* better than he. im going back to 10W40, like now...... my personal opinion is that it is better for my ride.

i truly believed this guy had a tappy, sticky valve, and possibly needed a little clean out. you are taking the worst case, which on the forum is probobly the best way to do........... thanks stomper
rickyd

 

Rick,

u could be right on a sticky stem or valve, but 2,600 miles is a long long ways to travel w/o knowing. I hope you have found and read the GM / Ford procedure transmission fluid thread .. since I cant see any postings over one day old, this has been a challenge for me.

if it was a town beater, there are a lot of things we can try today, tomorrow, next week, etc .. but he is going coast-to-coast, I think.

on the oil .. when I was upstate NY, 05W20 was my winter oil, 20W50 was the rest of the year on cars over 75,000 miles. if I had a 50,000 mile N* engine, I would use exactly what GM says to use .. after that, depends on the wear which is next to ZERO on N*'s right up to 150,000 miles.

thing is, some cars in my fleet are now nearing the 200,000 mile mark .. STOMPER (MY 4x4) is 23 years old and she loves the 20W50 plus honey specially when that engine is hauling its 6,000 lbs GROSS plus 5 passengers plus 50 gallons of fuel plus another 600-800 lbs of cargo, across sand in 110F heat .. however, the Allantes, the Stangs, the LSC's all use that mix minus the honey and some of those engines habitually wrap 6,000 rpm heading to the triple digits hyper speeds.
All these cars all have un-opened, original engines and transmissions.

Sometimes, in a very hot summer, I will just go straight 40W on STOMPER ...

 

Sorry about not giving you more info guys.

The car has ~ 167,000 miles on it. As far as i've had it i have been doing routine maintenance on it, which includes regular oil changes. That has been true for the past 6-7 months.

The car itself has power, the noise from the lifters is not affecting performance. Also, a note to stomper's concern about the cam, my lifters have bearings on one end, which i was told by a mechanic would lessen the impact on the cam. That doesn't mean that i am completely ignoring the impact on the cam, however. I was curious if anybody has had experience with failing lifters, and if so how long have they gone before replacing them?

When i first start the car and the engine is cold, the lifter(s) is/are relatively noisy, but once the engine warms up the noise almost completely disappears.

Now i have also been experiencing some coolant loss ever since i bought the car. I recently changed the heater core and it has significantly reduced the loss, however i still notice a small drop in coolant every-once-in-a-while. My brother pondered that there might be a leaky head gasket and some coolant escapes in the lifter valley. That however is unconfirmed since i don't have any greenish-milky deposits on the oil dipstik or when i change the oil. There has been some moisture build-up on my PCV valve though (valve was changed in January soon after purchasing vehicle because it was clogged), and on the bottom of the oil cap in the crank-case. Like i said i am currently hard pressed for time, and money subsequently, to replace lifters and head gasket.

Also, it might be unrelated, but i also have relatively high cylinder compression. i did a compression check. Six out of the eight cylinders were registering between 185 and 195 psi, while the two others had about 210 psi. i was told that it might be built up carbon deposits.

Granted at this point i have seruis doubts about taking the car, and rightfully so. If you guys need anymore info please let me know. I have a relativly busy schedule so it might take me a day or two to get back to you. Thanks alot for you help rickyd and Stomper.

 

bearing or not bearings, the outcome depends on why they clatter .. sticky vs oil starved. they can be sticky for years and do fine as they still get oil, but cut off the oil supply and they are gone seize sooner than later.
engine flush considered?

going by those numbers, you can bet on the carbon deposits .. read the WOT in THIS SITE which is not the same as WOT elsewhere plus a good old timer mechanic can do an on-the-fly engine quench to break up up the carbon.

headgasket?
you seem pretty good doing cyl compression testing .. that is one excellent way to spot a failing headgasket.

.