Has anyone here used any of the oil additives to quiet down a noisy engine, and did you have any luck? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Gene

 

I use to have an International PU years ago that had a 392V8 that was pretty noisy. I used STP oil treatment and it did seem to help a little in real hot weather. but, not enough to really convince me from using it on other vehicles.

Doop <
76 F-100 Custom (96K Original North Dakota miles) 360-C6 All stock

64 F-250 (Bought from the north slope of Alaska) 292-T18 4 speed

 

i heard of a guy with a leaky 400 who kept dumping this junk in it (slick 50, or marvelous magic mystery oil, something like that) and he said it'd stop leaking for a couple weeks then when it started again he'd just dump some more in and it'd stop, he says it never gave up on him...........i guess it all depends.

 

For what it's worth-a friend had a D*dge, he would dump some stuff called "Motor Honey" in it every couple of hundred miles to keep it quiet. This did seem to work, in the short term anyway. The stuff reminded me of stp, in that it had that thick, don't want to pour if it's below 50 deg. type of thing going, just like real honey. Seemed to work well as an assm. lube for the lawn mowers as I recall, sticky stuff!

 

I once had an old Ford work truck that smoked and leaked so bad that I used a combo of 3 qts 10W40, 1 qt Bardahl's No Smoke every week, and 2 qts Motor Honey. I kept it runnin' until finally it locked up.

Try Motor Honey it's thick!

Doop <
76 F-100 Custom (96K Original North Dakota miles) 360-C6 All stock

64 F-250 (Bought from the north slope of Alaska) 292-T18 4 speed

 

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 18-Aug-01 AT 04:04&nbsp;AM (EST)[/font][p]My father once used that motor honey and all it did was make his Mazda smoke twice as bad. That was years ago and the bottle is still half full. It's sure worth a try though. Works for some, but not all. I use Marvel Mystery Oil on my truck. I think it helps a little with my noisey lifters.

Jake

 

I've had real good luck with "LUCAS" products. It feels like assembly lube, and it has cured a few problems for me.

 

[font color="004499"]
If you have noisy lifters, one of a very few things is going on:

a) You have a lot of gunk in your oil system, some of which may have either built up inside your lifters or plugged the oil inlets on a few of them.

b) Your valves are out of adjustment.

c) Said lifters are shot in the first place

d) You have 'way low oil pressure

e) You bought a diesel without realising it...


Additives are only a halfway measure. The first thing I woulld do on an older engine is to pop the valve covers and take a look.
You may find a bunch of "Charcoal Lookin" sediment in there, which would be real bad news. That means the whole engine is fulla crud, and the only real way to get rid of it is to break it down and hot-tank it.

"Justice Brothers" used to make a good "Gunk Remover" that could be added to the oil system, but old timers have told me to drain out a pint of oil, and add a pint of diesel fuel! It works just as good as all of the other additives on the market, and doesn't soak you for five bucks a can! (If it was a fuel system problem I'd recommend Berrymans, but not in an oil system).
Be sure and do an oil change (including filter) within an hour of running that, or within 60 miles - whichever comes first. Personally, I'd repeat it within a week if I was going that route...

Some valve trains are non-adjustable (early chrysler hydraulics were like that). For specs, get a good manual. I recommend a "Ford" shop manual (as in: From the service desk at a dealership), haynes and chiltons have gone right down hill in the last ten years, to the point of near uselessness. They don't even have these kinds of specs half the time.

Sometimes lifters collapse, and are done forever. Replacement is not all that expensive.

I did meet a fella once that bought a conversion van that someone had swapped a V-8 into without changing to an apropriate oil pan. This put the drain plug in the middle of the crossmember, where it was impossible to reach. It ran until so much sludge built up inside it sucked the oil strainer loose and all that crud smacked into the pump gears!

The hexagonal shaft that drove the pump in that one came out looking like a piece of ornamental wrought iron - it twisted through at least two complete circles before it broke off...

So consider your options well. Short cuts are very often the longest way around.

>=o)[/font]

 

I use diesel fuel in mine when I change oil, What I usually do is drain the oil out, add a gallon of Diesel and let it run for about a minute, then drain it out. I have been doing that for about 6 years now and no problems. I used to own a little Mercury Tracer and I drained the oil out of that and put in 2 Qts of Kerosene 1 qt of Dextron 3 and 1 quart of 20-30 I drove it around for a month with that mixure in it, then drained it and ran some diesel through it. I wouldnt recomend that but this car was only a 1/2 step away from the junkyard anyway.

When I first bought my truck I had the same problem and I bought some CD2 lifter quiet and put in it, it seemed to do the trick because I never had lifter noise after that, I have since rebuit the engine though.

 

Thanks guys for the responses. The vehicle in question is my daughters '95 LeBaron GTC. The lifter noise comes and goes. I agree that the best solution is to replace the lifters (non adjustable rockers), but was wondering if anyone had tried anything else with a bit of luck. Someone else told me to use some stuff called "Windsor"? Anyone ever heard of THAT stuff?

Gene