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Has anyone ever had a problem with the roller part of the roller lifter going bad on them??? I think I might have had one go bad in my Mountaineer. It started making a knocking and lifter noise when I was coming home from the lake last week, still have good oil pressure. I was pulling the boat and was coming up a hill when the noise started, It was pretty loud. first I thought it was a rod bearing. then it seamed to quiet down. there is still a noise but to me it really sounds like a lifter clatter at times but all the rockers are tight. It still runs normal, no skipping I still drove it another 25 miles home and the noise still has not gotten any worst. I haven't taken the intake off yet to look at the lifters. I'm afraid of what I might not find as I don't want to pull and have to rebuild the motor. I know this isn't about a/my Ranger but I figured allot of you have had these roller motors and might have run into this before.. Thank you

My 331 with roller lifters and rockers, has always had an intermittent tick particularly when cold. It usually goes away. But sometimes it is loud. I just associated it with my shims having one or two of the rockers a tad high and could be just a little lower. But after oil gets flowing up to the heads, it fills the gaps and the noise goes away and is not really an issue most of time time.

Mine is definitely more than just a tick. it is a knockish noise, but when you give it gas it doesn't get louder, like a bad rod or main would, the noise gets faster. That's why i'm thinking its valve trane. I am dreading taking it apart. I'm afraid i wont find a bad roller and end up having to pull the motor. I don't want to end up having to put a motor in it or rebuilding this one. It has 195,000 miles on it and figure everything else will start to go once i do this. Cant afford a payment right now don't want to fix it.. You know, that rock and a hard place, well its putting the squeeze on me.. Then there is the fact hunting season starts in two weeks and I don't need this to be down. As it sits right now I can at least drive it to were I hunt, 1/4 mile up the road and across the creek...

Not sure what to tell you on that. But personally, I'd rather know what's going on so if it's something that can be fixed now without issue, it doesn't cause other problems down the road.

If it's a rocker issue, that's just pulling valve covers. With a carbed setup, you should be able to do that without too much trouble and run the engine with the covers off to get a better indication as to what and where the problem is. If it's in the rocker/spring area, having the covers off should give you both a visual and audible advantage. But with this being a Mountaineer, I'm guessing it's probably a bone-stock vehicle with EFI and not likely to be easy to diagnose like this. So you may be looking at pulling each rocker to visually inspect them for wear and damage. With stock stamped rockers, I'd think damage bad enough to cause noise would be obvious once the rocker is in your hands. If you do find one that's bad, check its pushrod for blockage. My bet is the rod will be clogged. Even if all the rockers check out, I'd still check each pushrod just to make sure all are still straight and free-flowing. That's about all I'd know to do without digging into the engine further.

If all that checks out, then you may need to pull the intake. However before I did that, I'd probably want a good (not necessarily new) set of lifters to swap out your set with just so pulling the top off isn't a complete waste of time. Drain the antifreeze down a bit so you reduce how much spills into the valley when you crack the seals and replace the oil when done.

Doing all that would at least tell you if it is valvetrain or not. If it is, you should be able to repair/replace whatever has gone bad. If nothing in the top-end appears bad, then prepare for the worst...pulling the engine at some point may be necessary. But unless the engine has been run really hard with low/no oil or experienced severe detonation while running hard, my guess is it won't be a rod/main bearing in a stock engine with 195k. That's a pretty serious failure for just a sudden noise to show up out of nowhere. You usually get spun bearings after a night at the track where you didn't let the engine warm up, ran it low on oil, or the engine suffered severe detonation while at WOT. If you are confident none of those things happened right near when the noise started, then I wouldn't jump to the bad-engine conclusion just yet.

Its EFI.. I did pull the valve covers and didn't see any rocker problems. But of course you can't run it because the plenum had to be taken off to get to them.. All rockers where tight and didn't notice any bent push rods, but i didn't remove each one. I figured if it was a rod or main bearing i wouldn't have made it another 25 miles home pulling my boat.. When it first did it, it was really loud but then seem to quiet down some, almost like once the lifter pumped up to compensate for the play in the roller. The noise almost seems to go in harmony with the rotation of the cam. I just have never heard of a roller going bad. i have good oil pressure and oil is clean and full. there is no sludge in the heads, which i was surprised with it having 195,000 miles on it. I have owned this for the last 9 years and 80,000 miles and ALWAYS do my oil changes every 2500 to 3000 miles. I am a firm believer in regular and preventative maintenance.. I know I need to pull the intake next, just dreading it because I'm afraid of what i might not find.. I am hopping its as simple as just replacing the lifters. then that would just be a $200 fix. If its not then I'm pulling the motor and replacing it and that would be closer to $800 on a vehicle that is only worth $2000, thats what im afraid of...

It may be a waste of time if you are confident this is a lifter issue, but personally I'd pull each rocker and make sure each rocker and pushrod is good. Rocking the rockers in your hand would make obvious any damage your eyes aren't likely to see otherwise. As well, pulling the pushrod out and looking at them in your hands would do the same. Any clogging or warpage would be obvious just by looking down the length or rolling them on a smooth surface.

As for oil quality I know what you mean. Both of my Explorer engines were the same as you described. Both had the typical sheen or coating on the tops of the heads and rockers, but neither had sludge of any kind. The most "buildup" on the engine was a very small bit of carbon scaling on the bottom side of the valve covers. Quality of oil today is significantly better than it was in the 70s and 80s. So I would be highly surprised if you had a clogged pushrod particularly if you are a regular oil changer and use synthetic oil. But it isn't impossible and still worth taking the time to check them.

the way you said you thought it was a rod knock at first it could be a wrist pin going bad. I know that's not what you want to hear. They sound a lot like a rod but quieter. If that's what it is most times they are louder when engine is cold and get quieter as it warms up. You can also pull plug wires one at a time and if noise gets less it's that cylinder.

The wrist pin is what i'm thinking also.. It seams to go with the rotation of the cam. You can feather the gas to a point it will go away. It doesn't get louder on acceleration, just faster. I am going to take the intake off today and start checking rockers, push rods and lifters. I'm hoping its top end and I don't have to pull the motor...

Well my worst fear came true. Rockers, push rods and lifters all looked good, so motor is toast.... So its got to be a wrist pin... Time to find a truck... Its so hard to find something used around here that's not all rusted out.. got to love NY and there infatuation with salt... I hate vehicle shopping.. lol....

When you tear into it, I'll be curious to see the pics of what this wrist pin looks like. I've never heard of wrist pins that just go bad unless there's easily explainable abuse that led to it (i.e. long-hard WOTs, detonation, poor oiling, etc). And even then, it's usually some other component that fails like the head gaskets.

I was very surprised not to find a bad lifter. The noise seam to go with the rotation on the valve train. Let me ask you all this. I have a friend that has offered to give me a motor, but, its a 1995 and mine is a 1998. Is the block the same?? I know I would have to change the heads, intake and oil pan, but will a 95 block allow that??

As long as it's a roller block, it should be fine. But even the non-roller blocks can usually be drilled to be roller blocks as of around 1985. There was a post a few years back from a guy that took a non-roller 87ish block from a truck and drill-n-tapped it to accept the roller lifter spider. The block, as cast, was the same as a roller block, just not drill-n-tapped for the spider. But I believe all Ford Windsor 302 blocks have been roller since sometime in the 90s.

yes a 95 block will allow that. As cgrey said the only thing you would ever have to worry about is roller cam or non-roller cam. You could take a 69 302 and bolt everything from your engine to it except for a roller cam. SBF have always been the same. You could even bolt everything onto a 289, I had a 66 289 GT350 Stang intake bolted onto a 97 Explorer engine.