Brand X sticking valves from sitting too long.... Magic potion suggestions....

[Jeff_H]

Posting here since not about a stude....

I've had my old '87 Ford Ranger truck sitting at the farm in the old cattle shed for 10yrs. I think I last started it about 2006... So, this past week while I was down there I tried to get it going so I could move it as the tires had sunk into the dirt up to the rims. Definitely not ideal storage location.

After about 10gal of fresh gas and 1 can of seafoam I managed to get it running enough to determine its got some intermittently sticking valves. Eventually, I had to hook a tow rope to pull it out of its sunken holes but was then able to drive it around the yard. When sticking, it won't stay running w/o pumping the gas and it shudders badly. When not totally sticking, you can hear it coughing in the exhaust to greater or lesser degrees.

Any suggestions on magic potions to get those valve(s) unstuck? The oil was changed back when it was parked and it still looks clean. This truck has the 2.9 V6. It WAS running OK when parked so I can only assume this problem came about from sitting so long. I had it running on 3 occasions over the week long enough to get up to operating temps and it didn't clear up. Seems better when warmed up and worse at cold start.

At least I was able to get it moved and repositioned back in the shed. Some other stuff in that shed is going to be a bigger challenge.

[Bob Andrews]

If it really is sticking valves, I have the old Timey remedy:

Start it and get it up to operating temperature. Pull the air cleaner and open a quart of transmission fluid. Bring the idle up to about 2500 and start pouring in transmission fluid until it kills the engine. Let it sit a day or two.

After the time passes, start it up and take it down the road. The length and thickness of the cloud it blows out will be unbelievable. But, it has worked every time I've tried it. I had an elderly customer with a Thunderbird with a 460 that would have sticky valves every spring, and I did this every year until he passed away.

Some say this also works with Marvel mystery oil, but I've always used transmission fluid.

I can't remember if yours would be fuel injected. If it is, it may or may not be that simple.

[GinettaG12P]

Sounds a bit risky. There is the potential for hydraulically locking a cylinder, which would be disastrous on startup. If you use the ATF method, after the engine has set for a day or two, you might want to turn the engine over by hand just to be certain none of the cylinders has more ATF in it than the volume of the combustion chamber. This is sort of like walking the prop through on radial engines to be sure that none of the bottom cylinders is full of liquid (oil, gas).

[Jeff_H]

Hi Bob,

Yeah, this truck has EFI so no air cleaner as there is a hose from the throttle-body off to a filter box mounted on the fender. Probably a vacuum line someplace I could get a T on to try this though....

Unfortunately, I don't dare touch the brakes for fear of them sticking too. The last time I had this running about 2006 I did drive it out on the highway and had some problems with sticking at that time. 8 more yrs in a damp shed not likely to be good in that area. Fortunately, the yard is large enough so I had room to coast to a stop.

I did put about a coffee cup worth of ATF in the oil (all I had around) and it didn't help. Probably not enough added detergent in there to matter and it didn't get on the "gas" side of the valve stem.

If I had any smarts, I would have traded this in back in 2003 when I got my F150. OR I should junk out the old rusted out tbird and use this for winter. But its a 2wd and terrible on crappy winter roads as I recall from when it was my 30% year round daily driver.

[Bob Andrews]

It's a common trick to replace one quart of engine oil with ATF. It is high detergent and helps clean deposits out of the crankcase. But it is very slow acting, as in several heat cycles over a few thousand miles.

Sounds a bit risky. There is the potential for hydraulically locking a cylinder, which would be disastrous on startup. If you use the ATF method, after the engine has set for a day or two, you might want to turn the engine over by hand just to be certain none of the cylinders has more ATF in it than the volume of the combustion chamber. This is sort of like walking the prop through on radial engines to be sure that none of the bottom cylinders is full of liquid (oil, gas).

This isn't risky. You can't get hydro locking in the cylinders since the oil was poured in through the carburetor. What it does is lay around the stems of the valves at the guides above the valve heads. Any that gets past the valves into the combustion chamber during the pour is burnt and sent out, leaving too small an amount to hydro lock; I doubt that there is ever any in their cylinder in liquid form.


Of course, any liquid that is introduced into a cylinder through the spark plug hole needs to be purged by spinning the engine over without the plugs in specifically to avoid hydra lock.

[rodnutrandy]

On a Kohler 12 horse that would have a valve stick and kill the motor, I added a little kerosene to gas , it slowly got better and quit sticking. Have no idea if it would help your problem .

[rknight89]

This may sound crazy, BUT, I've had amazing luck with Marvel Mystery Oil over the years. It can be found at any 'Chain' auto parts store. Pour a little down the spark plug holes, a little in the crank case and the gas tank, a splash in the transmission and rear end and maybe a little bit in the windshield washer jug if it isn't working right!!! It's worked well for me in older cars to unstick valves and whatever else may be stuck.

[Gunslinger]

With EFI, you can introduce ATF, Marvel Mystery Oil or other fluid by removing the large hose from the brake booster and allowing the fluid to get sucked into the induction system that way.

[ert62 hawlk]

To relieve cylinder hydro-lock turn the engine over backwards. Back in the day we put the race car in gear and pushed it backwards before pushing it off to start until a newbie ask why we did that. An ole timer explained '"it's to relieve any gas that the carbs would leak into the cylinders while sitting" , to which the newbie said----"This car is fuel injected"-- we changed our starting technique . It had only been injected a couple of years. Old Habits are hard to break.

[Bob Andrews]

Not to get too far off track, but our super modified race cars here run Kinsler fuel injection on alcohol on our big black Chevys, And we still back them off in gear before restarting after they've been shut down on the track, such as in a red flag situation.

[wolfie]

Techron. Removes the rust/corrosion on the valve stems. Steve