My 98 XJ has 215K on it. I am dealing with the usual 4.0l lifter noise. I am sure many will ask if it is, or could be, something else other than the lifters and I can only say this: It could easily be something else but what I am sure of is that when inspecting with a stethiscope it is loudest at the valve cover, the exhaust manifold is cracked and makes a different tick, the injectors have their own noise, and there is an emissions solenoid that has its own noise as well. I will only be discussing what I am calling "lifter noise/tick".
15K ago there was little to no tick at all. It fist appeared when I changed the oil from quicklube 5w-30 and generic filter to delvac 15W-40 with a puralator PUREone filter (PH8A size instead of stock size, all filter specs checked out exactly the same except size,,, maybe a bad idea?). I hoped on BITOG and found some posts about the PUREone filter being to restrictive, or something else, and causing "lifter noise" in other 4.0l Jeeps. I switched to a NAPA gold and the noise went away.
The last oil change was done about 6K ago with Royal Purple 15W-40 and matching filter (ph8a size). Ever since I have had considerable "lifter noise/tick". I have had no choice but to ignore this until now but I have time to think/deal with it now so I thought I would see if anyone had any thought or experience with this. I was thinking about finding a decent 10w-30 and using a napa gold filter and sticking with it. I bought the purple off a friend for $20 who sold his vehicle before he could use it and I had been wanting to try it. The only other thing I can think of to add is that I have also done a AutoRX treatment and rinse with the generic 10w-30 dino. No noise before or after the treatment but there is no more sludge when I pull the valve cover so it definitely loosened up some [censored]... maybe this caused some issues?
What oil and filter do you think I should be using. I would like to get the ticking back to almost nothing like 6k ago but I find so much conflicting info on what is a good oil and filter for this motor. Some say it has to be something special because it is a flat tappet, some say to run a HDEO, some say NEVER EVER EVER run anything other than 5w-30 or 10w-30, some say 15w-40 is ideal, some say it used to be but not with current oils, and many other opinions! Sorry for the long post and thank you for the help!
15K ago there was little to no tick at all. It fist appeared when I changed the oil from quicklube 5w-30 and generic filter to delvac 15W-40 with a puralator PUREone filter (PH8A size instead of stock size, all filter specs checked out exactly the same except size,,, maybe a bad idea?). I hoped on BITOG and found some posts about the PUREone filter being to restrictive, or something else, and causing "lifter noise" in other 4.0l Jeeps. I switched to a NAPA gold and the noise went away.
The last oil change was done about 6K ago with Royal Purple 15W-40 and matching filter (ph8a size). Ever since I have had considerable "lifter noise/tick". I have had no choice but to ignore this until now but I have time to think/deal with it now so I thought I would see if anyone had any thought or experience with this. I was thinking about finding a decent 10w-30 and using a napa gold filter and sticking with it. I bought the purple off a friend for $20 who sold his vehicle before he could use it and I had been wanting to try it. The only other thing I can think of to add is that I have also done a AutoRX treatment and rinse with the generic 10w-30 dino. No noise before or after the treatment but there is no more sludge when I pull the valve cover so it definitely loosened up some [censored]... maybe this caused some issues?
What oil and filter do you think I should be using. I would like to get the ticking back to almost nothing like 6k ago but I find so much conflicting info on what is a good oil and filter for this motor. Some say it has to be something special because it is a flat tappet, some say to run a HDEO, some say NEVER EVER EVER run anything other than 5w-30 or 10w-30, some say 15w-40 is ideal, some say it used to be but not with current oils, and many other opinions! Sorry for the long post and thank you for the help!
