Sticky valves, noisy engine, what to do?

Hey everybody. I've been tuning in my 134ci gas engine, from a 640, now in a 641 formerly diesel. The gas engine seems to have been very freshly rebuilt, but sat for years outdoors after that rebuild, maybe as much as 10-20 years.. heavily rusted on the outside. Clean as a dinner plate inside though, almost no carbon in the exhaust ports, bare metal intake ports, just a few specs of oil gunk on the valve stems. Mice had filled the ports with acorns, but they never got wet, no visible rust whatsoever.

After a day or two of starts/runs, I started to have 1-2 dead cylinders for as much as a couple minutes at startup. They always either come online themselves, or respond to a throttle increase and then stay on, but I've heard some clangs and dings from the engine at the moment they come online. I've interpreted that as sticking valves, the clang coming when they free up (hopefully not when they're hit by pistons.......). Then, sometimes on throttle up or throttle down, going through the middle of the rpm range, around 1000, there's occasionally a rapid metal rapping noise for a few seconds. Oil pressure is always above 40, often closer to 60.

What does this all mean, and what can/should I do about it?

Thanks, Alex
 
Before I got very concerned about anything, considering that we are dealing with storage problems, not mechanical problems would be to
work it over good with "Snake Oil" in the fuel and Oil.

One better since mechanical problems were suspect: I have a '63 2000 Diesel with 3700ish orig hours, original Proof Meter working fine,
never had a wrench on the engine proper. Thought I needed to do an overhaul but after a couple of good doses of SO and working it
through for the last several months, it quit burning oil and runs like a top; no mechanical work required.
 
If your valves were sticking your pushrods might have gotten out of position. I would pull the side cover and have a look. Spray some blaster around the valves and see if they are sticking, turning by hand or starter.
 
(quoted from post at 09:26:32 03/02/18) If your valves were sticking your pushrods might have gotten out of position. I would pull the side cover and have a look. Spray some blaster around the valves and see if they are sticking, turning by hand or starter.

What he said. ;) On the rebuild, the valve guides may have been knurled or replaced and be too tight as well. Once its running on all cyls, I would work it long, long, long, and hope to "wear it in" to see if that helps. A good hd diesel oil with lots of detergents to clean any varnish or sludge off the stems will help as well.
 
What is "snake oil" specifically for you guys? Some kind of Lucas product type thing? Which one? I figured something like that might be helpful..

Good point about the pushrods coming out of place, yikes.... I'll look into that for sure. Though if it's running on all four now, that would mean they're all doing their jobs, and thereby necessarily where they're supposed to be also, correct?

And you'd run 15w-40 diesel oil in this gas engine?
 

Back when our JD "B" tractors were New, they burned valves constantly..

Dad learned how to stop that pretty well..

He would warm them up, remove the Vent tube to the Carb and with the engine running at more than 1/2 throttle, pumped in motor oil just as FAST as the engine could take it
and keep on running...
About twice/year..
That was somewhat memorable...the cloud of smoke would bring the fire Dept, these days...!!!
Worth a try....
 
What is "snake oil" specifically for you guys?

Snake Oil, and Mechanic In A Can, are a couple of the terms used to describe products intended to address problems such as yours.

I would use ATF or Marvel Mystery Oil in the gas tank and crankcase.

Unfortunately, present day gasoline does not include any of lubricating additives that were once available. For all of my lawn and tractor equipment, I add 8 ozs of ATF per 5-gallon can.
 
I use Power Services products for my diesels (all my tractors) and Sea Foam for my gassers which are my truck and my small engines.
Can't say how others work as I am satisfied with these and don't care to change.
 
I ran 15w-40 in my 1988 Ford F 150 3 liter V8 for a couple hundred thousand miles to name one. I kept that oil in all my engines till I bought
a 2007 Dodge 4.7 and it specifically said that the oil pump was designed to pump thin oil like 5w-20 so I did. My 2009 Hemi was the 8-4
and the OEManual stated clearly that you were to use the thin oil or the 8-4 wouldn't work. Never had a problem with either and that was a
"life change" for this guy whose first vehicle was a '47 Chebby hot water 6, 3 on the tree, P/U and it ran on Havoline HD-20w in the Texas
winters and HD-30 in the Texas summers.
 
(quoted from post at 19:53:41 03/03/18) I ran 15w-40 in my 1988 Ford F 150 3 liter V8 for a couple hundred thousand miles to name one. I kept that oil in all my engines till I bought
a 2007 Dodge 4.7 and it specifically said that the oil pump was designed to pump thin oil like 5w-20 so I did. My 2009 Hemi was the 8-4
and the OEManual stated clearly that you were to use the thin oil or the 8-4 wouldn't work. Never had a problem with either and that was a
"life change" for this guy whose first vehicle was a '47 Chebby hot water 6, 3 on the tree, P/U and it ran on Havoline HD-20w in the Texas
winters and HD-30 in the Texas summers.

yes. .and the hydraulically driven fuel injectors are even more picky about oil types... So on modern high tech engines,, the rules are changed a bit... as well as fuel economy for CAFE rules.
 

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