MMO Clean = New Lifter Tick

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Phishin

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I've been trying to clean up a 1990 Chevy K1500 350TBI with 160k miles on it. The motor was badly gooped up with crud. Removed valve cover and mechanically cleaned it up. Been doing 2-3k mile oil changes and using ATF, Seafoam, and MMO as a way of cleaning this engine up. Not all three at the same time!! I'd use one of them for 2-3 OIC, and then swtich to the next. I've done this for the last 10k miles.

So, recently I started using MMO. Now I have a tick. Only at start up. It lasts anywhere from 20 seconds to 2 minutes after start up. Then it's gone.

Why would it start to tick now? I think the engine is getting fairly clean now.

Should I now move onto the 4th weapon? Kreen!?!?
 
Simple - you cleared away enough sludge and junk from the lifters that the clearances 'opened up' a bit, and now it ticks.
 
I blame the ATF fluid which was used as a "cleaner"
33.gif
 
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
Dang, Id run the engine on type F for a couple thou to lube it up with some nice polar naphenic oil. Yes, it is a good cleaner.


Are you serious? The ATF as a cleaner trick is held in fairly high regard elsewhere, but usually considered witchcraft here. Never tried it myself but find the contradiction interesting.
 
Originally Posted By: Artem
I blame the ATF fluid which was used as a "cleaner"
33.gif



For a few thousand miles, I added 1 quart of ATF to 4.5 quarts of oil. Nothing outrageous. I was using the Havoline Type III, I think it's called. Or ATF +3 or something like that.

What could have that done to my engine? I doubt much. It couldn't have done anything more than dumping a quart of Seafoam in the oil, which I also did. Now I got a quart of MMO on board. Now withe MMO, I'm running M1 10-40 High Mileage.

ARCOgraphite: Are you serious?
 
Originally Posted By: Artem
I blame the ATF fluid which was used as a "cleaner"
33.gif



Yep, please don't add ATF to your oil. It doesn't help.



Arco, you're a riot.
 
Originally Posted By: Zaedock
Originally Posted By: Artem
I blame the ATF fluid which was used as a "cleaner"
33.gif



Yep, please don't add ATF to yousr oil. It doesn't help.



Arco, you're a riot.


Maybe it didn't help. But it didn't hurt.

I am attempting to do a "Medium-speed" clean. This truck engine was BAD when I got it.

So at first, I did 3 oil changes with 500 miles OIC and did an engine flush with kerosene each time.

Then some ATF to thin the oil and try to cut some of the grime.

Then some hardcore doses of Seafoam to start knocking [censored] loose.

Then MMO to continue to dissolve crud. All 4 treatments got 2-3 oil change intervals with no oil change going over 2k miles.

Now I got the lifter noise.

Is it possible that something got jarred loose and is partially blocking the oil passage and it just takes a lot longer for that lifter/valve to get the oil it needs?

I seriously doubt "crud" was keeping the cam/lifter slack in check and when I removed the crud, it's now loose....like someone mentioned above.

But I have been using a heavy dose of Gumout Regane lately and that could have burned some carbon/gunk off the valves for sure. That stuff is remarkable.
 
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I would just do a couple of Kreen OCIs, with the last 500 miles of the last one with a full QUART added (to a decent weight HM oil, at least a 10W-40, and at least two filter changes during each OCI).

Then just run ~ 5K mile OCIs with any of the the good HM synthetics/semi-syns for a while.

As others have stated, that 'tick' might just disappear!
wink.gif
 
Originally Posted By: Phishin
I've been trying to clean up a 1990 Chevy K1500 350TBI with 160k miles on it. The motor was badly gooped up with crud. Removed valve cover and mechanically cleaned it up. Been doing 2-3k mile oil changes and using ATF, Seafoam, and MMO as a way of cleaning this engine up. Not all three at the same time!! I'd use one of them for 2-3 OIC, and then swtich to the next. I've done this for the last 10k miles.

So, recently I started using MMO. Now I have a tick. Only at start up. It lasts anywhere from 20 seconds to 2 minutes after start up. Then it's gone.

Why would it start to tick now? I think the engine is getting fairly clean now.

Should I now move onto the 4th weapon? Kreen!?!?



mmo does thin the oil a little. maybe you have a weak lifter thats sensitive to viscosity.


quit putting seafoam and atf in your oil!!!! just use MMO, 20% with 3k ocis until its cleaned up, then try a HM oil, like M1 HM.
 
It might just be time for a cam and lifters. I'd run a qt of MMO with your oil for 3K, or give Kreen a shot. If that doesn't work it might be time to consider mechanical repairs.
 
Originally Posted By: Phishin
I've been trying to clean up a 1990 Chevy K1500 350TBI with 160k miles on it. The motor was badly gooped up with crud. Removed valve cover and mechanically cleaned it up.


I assume you meant "manually cleaned it up". Did you remove the oil pan to see if the pickup is being clogged? Did you cut open any of the oil filters? How did they look?
 
Originally Posted By: sunfire
Originally Posted By: Phishin
I've been trying to clean up a 1990 Chevy K1500 350TBI with 160k miles on it. The motor was badly gooped up with crud. Removed valve cover and mechanically cleaned it up.


I assume you meant "manually cleaned it up". Did you remove the oil pan to see if the pickup is being clogged? Did you cut open any of the oil filters? How did they look?


Yeah, oooops, I meant manually. I actually used brake part cleaner AFTER I removed all the crud I could, to clean it up real good. Then I dumped a quart of oil in and around all the lifters on each side to rinse off the solvent, and then drailed oil and refilled. that's how I cleaned it. About 5k miles ago.

No, never removed the oil pan. I have cut open some filters and they are pretty packed full of [censored]. So, I started off changing the filters every 500 miles, then 1000, now I just do 2000 OIC's and change the filter then.

I thought about MMO thinning the oil and causing a lifter to tick. that's why i was using 10w40 M1HM as my base oil, which is a good cleaner. The tick is coming and going at start up. This morning, it was barely audible after sitting all night and went completely away in 10 seconds. If it comes back strong again, I'm just gonna dump the oil and start over. Obviously something is float around in the oil.

If my pick up was clogged, would I still have good oil pressure? My oil pressure rises instantly when I fire the truck up and goes to 30psi, settles to 25psi once warm.
 
A badly clogged oil pickup and a loaded oil filter can restrict oil flow. The oil pickup is worth checking out next OC. If your filters are loaded with crud every time, try using an oversized oil filter.
 
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Originally Posted By: demarpaint
It might just be time for a cam and lifters. I'd run a qt of MMO with your oil for 3K, or give Kreen a shot. If that doesn't work it might be time to consider mechanical repairs.


+1! and i bet that timing chain has got a foot of slack in it by now
 
and i bet that timing chain has got a foot of slack in it by now

How would a sludged up engine cause the timing chain to deteriorate? Or are you thinking something else has caused this besides the sludge?

Sorry for the super noob question, but how do I an over-sized oil filter for my 1990 K1500 5.7TBI?
 
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