Marvel Mystery Oil vs. Rislone for hydraulic lifter ticking.

[firefighterjeep]

My 95 yj is suffering from the dreaded Jeep tick. I've read several threads on the subject and have found suggestions for using both products but haven't read anything comparing the two. Is one superior over the other?

[someguy17]

I don't know about the rislone, but last week infact I had the jeep tick quite bad, it used to only be at higher rpms but now it was even at idle. I changed my oil to some mobil 1 high mileage and put in half a bottle of marvel and 2 oz in the gas tank.

started her up and haven't heard the tick since, it idles smoother, less vibration and there is no exhaust popping either. I highly recommend it considering its a 10 dollars and 5min job

[firefighterjeep]

Thanks for your input. I had heard about substituting one quart of either additive during an oil change, but never read anything about adding it to the fuel on a non-two-stroke engine. I don't notice the ticking at higher RPM, only at idle. Thanks again. Glad to hear another black yj is running smooth.

[littleblackXj]

Have you had any luck with marvell mystery oil firefighterjeep? My jeep is ticking too and before I add some "mystery substance" to my fuel I wanted to see if it worked for someone else.

[Mean Max]

I had/have the dreaded valvetrain tick as well. On the last oil change (2800 miles ago) I went to the Castrol GTX "High Mileage" 10w30 oil, used the larger PH8A Fram filter (I always have used Fram, even though they get a bad rap) to increase oil capacity, and put in 6 qts. of oil & 1 qt. of MMO (Marvel Mystery Oil) and things got a whole lot better immediately.

Now, as my oil is nearing the 3,000 mile mark and is due to be changed again, the ticking has returned. Maybe that's my indicator for oil servicing?

I'll be changing it again in the next week or so, and I plan on performing a repeat of the previous procedure.

[themonkeyman]

Originally Posted by Mean Max

I had/have the dreaded valvetrain tick as well. On the last oil change (2800 miles ago) I went to the Castrol GTX "High Mileage" 10w30 oil, used the larger PH8A Fram filter (I always have used Fram, even though they get a bad rap) to increase oil capacity, and put in 6 qts. of oil & 1 qt. of MMO (Marvel Mystery Oil) and things got a whole lot better immediately.

Now, as my oil is nearing the 3,000 mile mark and is due to be changed again, the ticking has returned. Maybe that's my indicator for oil servicing?

I'll be changing it again in the next week or so, and I plan on performing a repeat of the previous procedure.

SO the PH8A from FRAM will increase oil capacity by a whole quart? I'd like to try that. I too have the lifter tap, esp. under torque. IT seems to have gotten heavier lately, I'm running Castrol 10w40 synthetic (don't worry, I changed all the gaskets prior to switching) and it went away for a while, but has now returned with a renewed vigor.

I have also heard that adding about a half quart of ATF then driving around a bit (less then 20 miles then changing the oil) can clean thing up nicely, since ATF has lots of detergents for keeping valvebodies clean... so might try that, I'm at about 4k on the synthetic, so I'll probably change it fairly soon.

[mudmobeeler]

I changed the intake gaskets on a monte carlo and once completed the lifters were so bad it was like they werent getting oil at all. At that point the owner told me they were doin that for a long time and that the car had been setting for 2 years needing the intake gaskets. At that point I wanted to slap the sh*t out of him and told him he wasted his time and money on the car. We changed the oil again and substituted a quart of oil with the rislone and after about 20 minutes of running they did get quite however a week later they got loud again. A week after that the motor blew. Dont know if that helped you or not but there is so info.

[firefighterjeep]

To littleblackxj: No, I haven't tried it yet. I just recently changed the oil. Doesn't have very many miles on it yet, so I hate to dump it just yet. Also want to gather a little more input on both products before I go pouring it in my engine. I'll be sure to post my results.

To themonkeyman: I have heard that switching to a synthetic could create problems on an older engine. Have read that running dino oil for a long time, then switching to synthetic causes leaking around the piston rings. Synthetic can get into places where dino can't. Newer engines of today are machined to much higher tolerances than the older ones were. Don't know if the synthetic has anything to do about the renewed vigor of your lifter tap or not. Just a thought.

Thanks for all the comments.

[firefighterjeep]

Originally Posted by mudmobeeler

I changed the intake gaskets on a monte carlo and once completed the lifters were so bad it was like they werent getting oil at all. At that point the owner told me they were doin that for a long time and that the car had been setting for 2 years needing the intake gaskets. At that point I wanted to slap the sh*t out of him and told him he wasted his time and money on the car. We changed the oil again and substituted a quart of oil with the rislone and after about 20 minutes of running they did get quite however a week later they got loud again. A week after that the motor blew. Dont know if that helped you or not but there is so info.

I'm hoping it had something more to do with the Monte sitting for 2 years....or bad intake gaskets.....or something. Thanks for the scary input.

[Mean Max]

Originally Posted by themonkeyman

SO the PH8A from FRAM will increase oil capacity by a whole quart?

I have also heard that adding about a half quart of ATF then driving around a bit (less then 20 miles then changing the oil) can clean thing up nicely, since ATF has lots of detergents for keeping valvebodies clean...

Not really a whole quart, but my valve cover leaks pretty good, so it was actually slightly overfull. But my leak took care of that in about 1,000 miles.

I've always heard that too, but the MMO label says you can run it for the entire time, so that's what I did.

[firefighterjeep]

Mean Max....Did the MMO eliminate the lifter ticking? Just got off the phone with a mechanical engineer buddy of mine. He suggested the ATF. He said to stay away from the synthetic and Ford stuff. He said to add up to one quart of regular ATF for a 4 quart system, run it for a couple hundred miles and dump it. He said it'll also be a lot cheaper than the Rislone or MMO. He said he did it for a noisy valve on another buddy's Taurus and two oil changes later, not a peep. Good to know!

[Mean Max]

Originally Posted by firefighterjeep

Mean Max....Did the MMO eliminate the lifter ticking? Just got off the phone with a mechanical engineer buddy of mine. He suggested the ATF. He said to stay away from the synthetic and Ford stuff. He said to add up to one quart of regular ATF for a 4 quart system, run it for a couple hundred miles and dump it. He said it'll also be a lot cheaper than the Rislone or MMO. He said he did it for a noisy valve on another buddy's Taurus and two oil changes later, not a peep. Good to know!

Yes, the ticking went away immediately. I've left the MMO in there for 2800 miles so far, and it has just started to tick a little bit. I had planned on doing an oil change at 3000 miles anyway, so I'll be doing that next week with the same oil/filter/MMO as last time, to see if it is a repeatable condition.

[firefighterjeep]

Thanks for the input, Max. This brings up another question...if you're experiencing a return of the tick, does that mean the valve rockers need to be adjusted?

[jay-h]

Originally Posted by firefighterjeep

...To themonkeyman: I have heard that switching to a synthetic could create problems on an older engine. Have read that running dino oil for a long time, then switching to synthetic causes leaking around the piston rings. Synthetic can get into places where dino can't. Newer engines of today are machined to much higher tolerances than the older ones were. Don't know if the synthetic has anything to do about the renewed vigor of your lifter tap or not. Just a thought.

Thanks for all the comments.

Oil experts insist that there is no penalty for switching from synth to dino and back again. There is one potential problem with old seals (which is a problem whichever oil you have) giving out, and the 'high mileage' versions of oils (synth or dino) have seal conditioners which might help (or not).

[Mean Max]

Originally Posted by firefighterjeep

Thanks for the input, Max. This brings up another question...if you're experiencing a return of the tick, does that mean the valve rockers need to be adjusted?

AFAIK, there isn't anything to adjust, they're hydraulic lifters, and the ticking is caused by clogged/collapsed lifters. The real fix is to R&R the cylinder head & replace them. It's not worth the hassle for me personally, if I can get another 30k-50k out of mine, my plan is to just replace it down the line with a quality brand remanufactured engine.