BStone

Well was driving back in my 67 Delta 88 and about 5 minutes up the highway started to hear a lound sticking which was easily heard in the cabin with the radio (am) up.I pulle dover and checked under the hood and the only thing amiss was that the CCC airbox vacuum had come detached.

The loud ticking was present at idle and seemed to be coming from the area of the fuel pump or passenger valve cover.

No strange smoke, no overheat light, no power loss.

Limped the car home and switched off/pulled air cleaner to check around.

Started the car up and the ticking was present.

Switched off, waited a couple of minutes and the ticking vastly subsided.

The ear driver trick was has the vavlve cover quiet as a church mouse. Some ticking is heard when rested on the fuel pump, but not really heard abive the engine now.

Is it possoble the fuel pump got overworked from the CCC vac being disconnected or is this a pump ready to blow?

Thanks for any advice!

Lady72nRob71

No, the CCC hose had nothing to do with it - just coincidental. Does the car run normally? If so, the fuel pump should be fine.

Sounds like lifters.
Not sure if this year uses hydraulic lash adjusters, but if it does, it could be oil starvation. When it starts ticking, shut the engine off and check the oil level immediately. It should be close to the full mark or at least on the stick! If the internal oil return holes are clogged, oil may take to long to return to the pan, hense the return to normal after waiting. I doubt this is the problem but it is a very easy thing to verify. My oil drains were almost completley clogged.

BStone

Yeah the car runs normally. I did pull over and check oil when I first heard it and it did have oil on the stick. I wish I had my big *** screwdriver with me so I could have pinpointed the sound

I have been starting it up and idling for about 15 minutes off and on all night and the sound has not come back. I will take it up the highway tomorrow and see if it returns. One hell of a racket let me tell you! I thought I had cooked a valve.

I have been driving the car daily on the highway all week and this is the first time I have heard this noise.

How does one unclog the drains anyways?

Thanks Rob!

Colin

Lady72nRob71

The drains I am thinking about are under the valve covers, two per side, but if you had oil on the dippy stick and no flashing of the oil light, I bet that is not the issue. Maybe a sticking valve component? I do not have much experience there... Hope you find the problem!

Tedd Thompson

Sounds like a lifter stuck,you might try changing your oil. Had this happen with a 63 I had. It would stick about every 3500 miles, never had to checked the mileage sticker I just changed oil when I got lifter noise....Tedd

jaunty75

If you still suspect the fuel pump at all, and you don't know the history of it, it can't hurt change it. It's an easy, 20-minute job, and you can get one at Autozone for about $27. I did it on my '67 Delta without a problem.

BStone

Well checked it this morning. The car did not make the same noise. Drove it to the gas station and checked the oil and it was 2 litres low (not even on the stick). Now it sits at the mid point.

jaunty75

That's a lot. It's more than 40% of the capacity of the engine. I'm not surprised that you would get strange noises from an engine that low on oil.

Perhaps the real question is, how did it get that low in the first place? If you're checking your oil regularly, you should notice as it starts to get low on the dipstick and add a quart (or liter) when it gets down to the ADD point on the stick. It should never get two quarts low unless you've got a leak somewhere or are burning it up.

BStone

I had a full oil change done about 1000km ago when I bought the car.

There is a leak or two but nothing that I thought was out of control.

I have noticed that the car is smoking alot more (not blue but white /grey and heavy on the gas smell) as of late. I was re-routing vac lines trying to put them right so was thinking that the vac system may be out of whack.

jaunty75

Yikes. I think you've got several problems.

The most serious is the loss of over two quarts of oil in 600 miles. That's a lot, and you need to find out where it's going. If you're not seeing it on the ground, then you're burning it up, and your engine needs to be overhauled. You need new piston rings.

I think the problem you mentioned in your first post in this thread, the loud ticking, is directly traceable to your oil problem. Not only do you not have enough oil, but you also likely have little oil pressure even now, with the crankcase full. If you don't have an oil pressure gauge, it might be worth hooking one up to the oil pressure sending unit port and see what it is when the engine is warmed up.

You should also do a compression test to see how your much pressure your cylinders can hold. If you've got oil leaking past the piston rings, you'll have low compression in one or more cylinders.

The gasoline smell in the exhaust is a sign of a too-rich fuel mixture, so it appears a tune-up is in order, too. But to my mind, the oil issue is much more serious. As it is now, you're essentially adding a quart every fill-up. That's no way to run.

Your engine has some potentially serious problems, and you at least need to find out what they are, even if you don't have the means or the money to fix them right now. You at least should know where your engine is in terms of condition so you don't inadvertently harm it. It sounds like you came close to doing just that when the oil level became more than two quarts low, and you only became aware of it when the ticking started.

BStone

Conducted some maint today. Timed it (it was quite far advanced).

Pulled all the plugs and shot compression.

The plugs were older with dry white crusty ish build-up. Not black or wet.

Compression was 150-155 across 6 cylinders. 2 on the passenger side next to each other threw 125-130.

Oil level has remained constant across the stick at approx 50 miles now.

Put the rad overflow into a cup of water and no burbling so think the head gasket is ok.

I am going to swap all the plugs out and see if the emmisions drop back a bit. Bringing the timing back definetly improved the excessive exhaust although I will tweak the idle a bit I think.

jaunty75

This is ok, from what I read. Generally, no cylinder should be less than 100, and the lowest reading cylinder should not be less than 70% of the highest reading cylinder.

In your case, 125/155 = 0.81, or 81%$, which is within the spec.

However, the two that are low might be a source of oil loss. Another thing the book says is to watch the pressure over a number of strokes. If those two low cylinders went right to the 125-130 value and stayed there, then things are ok. If the pressure was low on the first stroke built up to the measured value over several subsequent strokes, then that could indicate bad piston rings.

One way to check this is to squirt some oil into those two cylinders and then re-run the test. If the performance then improves considerably on another test, meaning that the pressure builds quickly and stays there, that would be a strong indication of bad piston rings.

BStone

I have been watching the oil level like a hawk and noticed today that it appeared about 1 litre low. As above, the compression was good, there is no visible signs of oil being burnt at the tailpipe.

There are some leaks going on but no heavy driveway spotting.

The one thing I have noticed is that the valve cover breather seems to push out alot of exhaust back through the air box via the connector hose.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

jaunty75

Wow. You do have a serious problem. You posted on September 14 that your oil level was "constant" for about 50 miles of driving. It is now September 22, 8 days later, and you're down a quart. How many miles did you drive it this past week?

It's going somewhere. My guess is that it's getting burned even though you don't see any blue smoke from the tailpipe. But if you haven't driven the car this past week, then it's obviously not getting burned, but it's going somewhere. It's hard to believe that a quart of oil leaking out of the engine in the space of 8 days doesn't show up on the ground somewhere. Maybe it's pooling somewhere? Still, I would expect that pooled area to eventually fill up and lead to drips on the ground.

Wherever it's going, you need to find out and correct it. You can't be adding a quarter of oil every 50 miles. You couldn't be taking any kind of trip without a case of oil in the trunk!

Lady72nRob71

If burning oil with good compression, the valve guides could be worn and or the valve stem seals could be defective. My old Ford used to burn 2 qts per thousand and after replacing the valve seals, it is now 1 qt per 3000 (considered 'normal').

Pull a valve cover and check the seals through the springs to see if they are intact or attempt to move them LIGHTLY with a screwdriver. If they move easily, then they need replacement.

Also check the oil drain holes in the heads (when covers are off) to make sure the oil can flow back to the pan. Mine were almost completely plugged and oil was accumulating up there.

BStone

Thanks guys. Will pull the valve covers and take a peek when I get some down time from work. In the meantime I have started to throw in a lead supplement.

Only drove about 60-80 miles I would estimate since last report. The car spent most of the last week on a hoist getting an exhaust leak sorted.