My Jeep was very quiet till after i did my head swap (due to a crack and coolant damage). Its dead quiet upon start up but within a minuet or two it will begin to tick and end up very loud sounds like a cummins. I am running 20w-50 oil but was running 10w-30 before When putting the pushrods back in I droped a few in the gravel. Cleaned them well but they went in out of order so im assuming thats where my tick is comming from? or possibly the thicker oil?

2001 Jeep Cherokee
135,000 miles

I cant remember for sure where I read that sometimes you have to get shims for the rocker arms, I wish I could remember where tho, sorry. I am assuming you have good oil pressure and the rockers are tightened correctly...

one of the lifters went flat, it should pump back up but if it dont you will have to take out the lifter and soak it in oil so there is no air in the lifter.

take off the valve cover and with the engine running pit toyr thumb on each rocker and see which one quiets then you found the bad lifter. with the enhine off you can take off the rocker and try to move the pushrod like a toliet plunger and free anything in the lifter. then reassemble and try it again. if there is still noise comming from the same lifter then a replacement will have to be made.

Yes the rockers are tightened to factory specs, but i am going to pull the cover and check them again has been about 3,000 miles since the head swap.

It sounds like im getting mulitple ticks so unless a few went dead at once..? I will try your trick of plunging the lifters with the rockers off if i do fine one that quiets down. Might even drain a qt and toss some MMO or ATF in it to see if i can dislodge anything.

If nothing there ill check all the pushrods for straightness and possibly toss in a fresh set to make up for the uneven wearing when they got mixed up. I prefer chevy style adjustable rockers, just tighten the tick out

I would hate to have to pull the head again just to swap a lifter. Im also gonna try going back to a thinner oil also.

TRy going back to 10w30 oil,thicker oil is just harder to push it does nothing unless your motor is so wore out that you dont hace clearances you have spaces.

No shims for Jeep put on the rocker tighten to specs thats it ,if they are loose replace with new ones.

Yeah I tired going to thicker oil to bring back some hot oil pressure since the head crack did some bearing damage and oil pressure it low when hot but I honestly didnt notice a difference when going to thicker oil.. Changing oil is a easy thing to try.

no shims read above quote.

I believe I tightened them to 19ftlbs. Sound right? ill try pulling the rocker cover and see if I cant itleast narrow down which one or ones is causing the trouble.

I ended up with a bit of damage on mine to but it will be fine till it dies,and its really just an annoying tick sometimes it gone altoghther but I still run 10w30 and haven't had any problems ,I tried thicker oil and boy did it rattle terriable.g/l

yes thats riight, try to move them with the motor off. One set is about 12 bucks, so not to bad.

Oh not bad at all. Mine idles low so at hot idle i only get 5-7psi. I remedied that by making my own adjustable idle setup so i can raise the idle and that extra 200rpm is enough to bring pressure over 10psi. and im going to install the extended idle switch for morning when i have to let

I figure ill drive it till it dies cause at cruise i have 15-20psi hot so i dont see any real damage happening.

Nope you should be fine with that ,just run it till it dies and buy a new one for about 1600-1800 from jasper napa atk etc they all have them rebuilt. This is my plan then I 'll take and make a stroker out of the dead motor g/l let me know if you need anything else.

this info is awesome .....my 94 xj is knocking a bit at idle and ticking in the higher rpm range but once it shifts into od ...quite as a butterfly...its crazy ....i just bought mine 3 weeks ago and here is the same noise i here i think anyway,....but my oil pressure is at hot idle 35-40psi ...in gear 30-35 ...driving down the road steady 60-65 psi ....and it has 20w50 ...the po used it because of high miles he said ...should i go back to 10w30 or 10w40 ....think it might quiten it down a bit .../ I'M A NEWBIE TO JEEP SO BEAR WITH ME..oh it has 184,500 miles on it ,.....thanks guys

With your oil pressure I would go to 10w30 just use a good dino oil.