Howdy folks,

After throwing too much money at my van over the years to turn back now, I’ve recently encountered an engine tick that is costing me way too much time and money trying to figure out. So far we’ve ruled out a cracked flywheel/flex plate and timing chain slap. We are now on to investigating a possible lifter issue. If it’s not a lifter, I’m going to have a hard time justifying anymore exploratory costs here.

The van is a 2004 château with the 4.6 L V8., it’s got 135,000 on it.



As a last resort, I’ve began considering replacing the engine and trans with either a salvage yard find or remanufactured.

Can anyone give me a recommendation for someone who might be able to do this type of work in the Detroit area? I live in Livonia and haven’t had too many great experiences with the local shops for larger repairs like this.

thank you in advance for the time and suggestions!

Matt

 

An old mechanic's trick, if we were sure it was a stuck lifter, was to add a quart of ATF to the motor oil and run the engine a while. if it was a stuck lifter,the ATF cleaned the lifter and the tick went away and we changed the oil after that. Something to think about.

 

Thank you for the tip, I’ll certainly pass it on to the mechanic.