I think my valves are broken, MP3 included

[KillaKaze024]

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/song...songID=5956489

What do you think? I think my valve lifters are busted.
The car had an oil leak I didnt know about, and my oil light apparently isnt working anymore as I found out last night when I checked my oil after hearing the noise to find my oil bone dry.

It started yesterday, and has gotten progressively worse with each use. Before it was only light and when accelerating, then it was starting to come a lot but not when idle, and now its all the time. There is a slight loss of power too, and at one point during the last use we started to hear 2 different clicks, they had different pitches or sounds. I think the valves were obviously starved of oil, and now they are all busting.

What do you think? The noise is coming from the engine itself,I think more noticeably from the driver side of the engine but I could be wrong.

[mwt47]

If you could tell us
what year your car is
what engine it has
how many miles it has on it

You might get a more educated opinion of the problem.

That's just me though. I am sure someone else will know what the problem is without any information.

Mike

[inafogg]

i dont think there broken but not getting oil.whats the oil pressure?sounds like you need to do a valve job.especially if they were run dry & pressure is good.pull valve cover to see if your getting oil to the valves.GOOD LUCK!!
BTW make year miles would help

[KillaKaze024]

I just put oil in last night so its there yea maybe its just not getting there.

Its a 1999 Taurus

24V V6 DOHC Duratec Engine

110k miles

Lock electronics dont work, leaky front left tire now this!!!

i HATE THE thing too part of me just hopes I can scrap the damn thing lol but my pocket book says otherwise.

[KillaKaze024]

Bump need input asap!

[shorod]

Since the noise seems to go away when the engine speed gets high enough, you might have an oil pump that isn't working efficiently. One thing you could try is to drain a quart of oil and put in a quart of transmission fluid instead. Inspect the drained oil looking for signs of metal in the oil. Run the engine with the transmission fluid for a few minutes and see if the noise gets any better. If so, or if it at least changes, then you may want to let it run a bit longer. Once the noise seems pretty good (assuming that happens) drain all the oil and replace with new oil of the correct viscosity and install a new oil filter.

Transmission fluid has certain additives that do a decent job of breaking down sludge that may be restricting the passages. Unfortunately, it probably won't do much in the way of fixing a worn oil pump.

If you ran the engine completely dry, you might have more serious issues than transmission fluid can fix. Oil pressure guages are pretty cheap from auto parts stores and maybe a good next step to letting you know if this engine is worth fixing. You can also try just removing the oil fill cap and looking in with a bright light to see if you're getting oil to the camshafts.

-Rod

[KillaKaze024]

Thanks Ill give that a try tomorrow night, im working 9am to 7pm tomorrow and shops are closed anyway, im taking it in monday to see whats wrong. This is driving me nuts not knowing!!!

[KillaKaze024]

They say they think its either a valve lifter or ram rod problem. They are taking the engine apart today to find out what the problem is ....

[KillaKaze024]

Its not a valve cam or ram rod or anything they can see after taking the top apart and the oil pan underneath the engine... they took off each spark plug and now think its a piston wrist pin.

Any idea in general how much this could cost?

[Huney1]

I would have guessed a collapsed valve lifter. Also sounds like the piston skirt might be slapping the cylinder wall in which case you'd have metal filings in the oil. Pretty big job to replace a wrist pin and I think you're looking at a $1,000. repair bill. A good tip for vehicles with some miles on them, everytime you fill it with gas check the oil to. Takes about two minutes and as you now know can save you a heck of a lot of grief, and money. Good luck and let us know exactly what it was.

[UsedtobeSmart]

Lots of good ideas here from the rest of the crew, so let me offer a touch of advice on the repair part if you're looking to save every penny you can (and at the price of gas these days, well, I don't think I need to finish that); find out if your local school districts have an occupational education program. If so, they might have an automotive repair curriculum, in which case they probably work on cars for the public. If so, your local high school main office should be able to provide you with the number. Call, ask for the name of the the automotive tech program's teacher and to ask to him/her ask if they work on public vehicles, then explain the problem and ask if they could do it for you. Usually they charge very little to do the work if you'll buy the parts and bring them in. Downside is that it might take longer to get the work done and sometimes the work isn't up to professional standards, in which case you usually just tell them to finish the job.

I get a lot of my work done for $5 a job and other than a problem with my wheel bearing I need to get straightened out, I really haven't had any complaints.

Good luck!

[KillaKaze024]

I forgot what exactly he said but he was talking about damaged cylinders. Anyway he said the best bet would be a used engine because most likely I will pay 1500 for a repair on my current engine and have my other cylanders go soon after and be in even more shit.

So Im getting a new car

So what do you think I can do with my 1999 Ford Taurus with a damaged engine? What is a reasonable price to atleast give selling it a try?

[DJPsystems]

I bet that it is the rod bearings that went bad.