Caravan clicking engine

[bman55]

I have a 97 Caravan. A clicking has started in the engine; I have been told it is probably the lifters when you get a clicking sound. The valve cover gaskets have leaked some, would that have anything to do with the clicking though or does it seam to be indeed the lifters? Has 141000 so could be trouble I suppose. Thanks

[gas28man]

Check deeper into this board as there have been a couple of discussions on this issue. We need to know what kind of engine you have, but if it's the 3.0, you'll find plenty of discussion about inherent ticking. The 3.3s and 3.8s are lots tougher (my 3.8 has 310,000 miles on it and has never been opened), but a few had an issue with rocker girdles cracking. Given your mileage, a simple fix like an oil change with some synthetic oil will quiet it down.

Good luck, and read on.

Rick

[kickinkz]

The dealer told me there are no lifters in the 3.0...it's the tappets in the heads. He also told me it's no big deal...it usually goes away after it warms up....otherwise I was looking at around $700 to replace all of the tappets...

Later
Phil

[Chet42]

The 3.0L uses "Roller rockers" instead of lifters and the ticking should usually quiten down after warm up. Also the 3.0 will tick more if you use a heavier oil like 10w-30 or 40. Stick with 5w-30 as recommended.

Here is a link to photos of a 3.0L valve setup.

http://www.robskorner.org/faqs/3litrefaqs/rockers.html

I have 220,000K on mine and it ticks when started cold but it quitens down after about 2 to 3 minutes.

I've heard 3.3's tick like crazy when the lifters are gone with much less mileage.

Regards
Chet.

[JC2001ES]

You may also want to check for a small exhaust leak. We had a tick that went away when we re-tourqued the exhaust manifolds back to the head. You could actually see the black carbon deposit where it was leaking. Good luck