'98 K1500 5.7 Vortec Lifter Tick

[Annihilator]

Hi all, I recently have been experiencing a random lifter tick in the past 2 months.

I bought the truck about a year ago with about 120k on it from a kid. Truck ran fine but since it was overdue for an oil change, any probably many before that, I decided to run MMO in the oil and do a seafoam treatment.

After a couple of MMO oil changes I switched to full syn and have put about 500 miles on it since. I have then had about 4 times where I heard a loud ticking which sounds like a lifter. Half these times, the truck was semi-warm. The sound always went away after a few mins. It is not piston slap. Trust me, I had a 5.3 before this

So, should I resume another MMO treatment or two? The only other vehicle I had with this problem was my '93 Volvo 850 and that was due to bad oil pump pick up o rings......

 

[Clevy]

Run another cycle of mmo and and engine flush next oil change. It may free up the sticky lifter.

 

[bullwinkle]

HDEO eventually eliminated the tick from my '94 TBI 5.7, after 2 OCs, it was bad enough that I had contemplated putting a cam & lifters in it.

 

[Doog]

I would run Pennzoil Platinum 5w30 in it for 2-3 OCI cycles and see if it cleans it. You may just have a leaky lifter and no amount of cleaner will fix it.

 

[Annihilator]

Also, just to add, oil pressure is within GM specs.

 

[mattd]

lifters on these engines will gum up with neglected maintenance. Bit of a project to change but overall not hard, just time consuming. What weight oil are you using?

 

[JGW]

When I used mmo in the Tahoe it started ticking. After i got it out it went away.

 

[Annihilator]

I think its mostly 5w30 with some 10w30 mixed in. All full syn.

 

[BillyTheKid]

I have same year and engine. I'd run another shot of MMO again. I also like the advise on some HDEO or Maxlife. I've had luck with both. However, I personally never had a lifter tick but do have plenty of piston slap for a minute at startup.

 

[wtd]

I also own a 98 K1500 with the 5.7L that I bought new. Years ago when I ran Mobil 1 in this truck, I had what sounded like lifter tick. I even took it back to the dealer because it was still under warranty. They said there was nothing wrong.

I quit running the Mobil 1 and went back to a conventional oil and now at 123,000 miles, I have no lifter tick sounds. I do occasionally get the piston slap noise on a cold startup.

Try going back to a conventional oil for a couple of changes and see what happens.

Wayne

 

[Annihilator]

Well I ran half a bottle of seafoam in the crankcase for about 250+ miles and it ticked still occasionally but not as often. I have since changed oil and filter. Oil was dark but not nasty. I used 5w-30 G-Oil and Purolator filter. No ticking yet but its been 50 degrees. I'll report back!