Originally Posted By: scoobie
i agree with the drain crankcase, completely fill to top with diesel, remove plugs, fill cylinders with diesel, let sit overnight, disconnect distributor, turn over engine several times, then drain the mess, which will be very black. fill with 5w30, any cheap dino, run for a few hours, drain, again it will come out very black, and this time replace with nice synthetic oil. engine will run like new.
if above treatment fails, and it usually works great, then think of doing something more drastic, like the lifter thing u mentioned.
Wow, never heard this one before, but if you are going to do this, you have to picture where the lifters sit in a pushrod v8. When he says fill it up, he really means fill it up. you'd have to fill the engine to the point that diesel fuel is coming out of the valve cover fill hole in order to submerge the lifters.
Also, if you're going to do this, you'll want to hand crank it, not with the starter. Otherwise you're going to shoot diesel fuel out of the spark plug holes and probably coat the left and right wall of your garage in diesel - or even worse, in your eyes/mouth/nose. I've done this outside with dirty water after sucking it in the intake while 4x4ing. The fluid absolutely rockets out of the spark plug holes. Some will go out through the exhaust manifold too. Watch for fires afterwards. Also, I'd drain the mess first before cranking, otherwise you'll be burping diesel fuel out of the oil fill hole as each piston goes into its intake stroke.
I've never tried this, but it seems awfully messy. I'm doing an ARX treatment for lifter tick on my Chev. No luck so far. These trucks are known for collapsed lifters.
Finally, I'd run it a while. The lifter could be collapsed due to so much time in compression depending on the location on the cam over 5 years, or it could be frozen with a bit of corrosion. If it's corrosion, there's a decent chance it could break loose and start working again.
