After reading this article, you might be surprised at what you find. You might even change the brand of filter that you use.

Oil Filters Revealed - MiniMopar Resources

 

yeah I seen that on link pettyfog listed.

I have been out of the auto industry for 16 years or so. I was just hoping thing got better over that amount of time.

 

im totally trying to get this right because my buddy with his zr2 used 10w30 with lucas and his ticking has stopped but me with 5w-30 straight with a conditioner from a flush system and i tick for 2 seconds on cold startup.. i might just change up to 5w30 with lucas synthetic stabilizer

 

This "tick" you have, is it lifter noise or piston slap? Piston slap is quite common on the 4.3L & 5.3L engines on cold start up. Lifter noise, on the other hand, is not common on either engine.

Piston slap is caused by a lack of oil to the lower cylinder wall on a cold start up which causes the piston skirt to "slap" or "wobble" in the cylinder as it rises for the first few degrees of crankshaft rotation from BDC, (Bottom Dead Center). It's more of a knock sound low in the engine. In the early stages you can only hear it in park & neutral when you throttle up rapidly ~500 RPM from idle. It can last anywhere from a second or two up to ~30 seconds. As it progressively gets worse, you can hear it in gear on light acceleration.

Lifter noise is more of a ticking sound up high in the engine. It can be caused by using oil that is too thick causing oil starvation to the lifters. It can also be caused by using oil that is too thin, (or diluted with coolant) allowing the lifters to bleed off too rapidly, or not pump up at all, or it could be a faulty lifter.

Best to use the oil that is recommended in the owners manual, (and on the OEM oil fill cap) and no oil additives. If it makes noise, diagnose and fix the problem. Experimenting with oil weight and additives is a band aid, you're fixing the symptom, not the root cause.

 

On mine and this is where this thread got started. I had piston slap noise about any time it got below 50 degrees around here but it didn't last long as soon as it got warmer up the noise was gone and you might not hear it at all during the summer time. so the last time I changed oil I was thinking 132,000 miles, I have some piston slap, I will kick the oil up to 10w30 and add some Lucas oil additive. After that I started getting the lifter ticking noise. I changed oil filters thinking bad check value (backflow), oil pressure went up a little and the tick was a little quieter in the morning but would get quieter as the motor got warmer but never really totally went away. bad part is I didn't have the tick before but had piston slap. but the combo of 10w30 and lucas oil additive must have been too much. this weekend i am going to put 5W30 back in and see how it all changes.

 

What you just described is piston slap. The Lucas helps with lower cylinder wall lubrication and quiets down the piston slap but, the thicker oil is what causes the lifters to make noise. In this case, covering one problem creates a more serious one. I'd be more concerned about proper lifter & bearing lubrication than the piston slap.

 

Dano, you're between a rock and a hard place. As you noted your driving patterns tend to accumulated condensation in the engine. Therefore I cannot advise you like I do everyone else to use Mobil1 and vary the weight to suit sympoms. That is unless you dont care how much your every 3 month {because that how often you need to do it, in your situation} oil changes cost.
But you had piston slap before, now you have lifter tick for a few seconds.
I hate to disagree with the good cap'n because he is generally spot on or so close it doesnt matter but neither of those symptoms are serious enough to warrant major surgery.

Minor {relatively} surgery would be to replace the lifters with quality new ones. But unlike another thread's consensus, I would never buy the cheapest lifters.. no one who's gone through the carbuilding phase would do that. Cheap lifters are.. well cheap. They need to be OEM quality on the cam lobe interface. Despite first impressions softer hardness ratings can wear harder cam lobes.

If you choose to wait it out, I recommend continuing Lucas with a quality high detergent 5w30. I'm sorry and I dont want to start a pissing match especially since I'm against additives other than to fix symptoms instead of rebuilding.
I NEVER have lifter tick on any car I've owned over 3 months {bought several hi-mile cars that had it occasionally when I bought 'em but Mobil1 detergency fixes that.}

And that includes a car that had severe bearing damage in which I ran straight Mobil1 20w 50 for over 60,000 miles. Still purring like a kitten when it was wrecked and junked. A little knock on cold start but no lifter tick.

Look you're the one has to make the choice.. we know from previous threads Lucas tends to resolve the piston slap; lifter tick going away after 2 seconds is minor and may go away with continued use of a high detergent oil. Lucas does not cause lifter tick.
Lifter tick when warm, on the other hand, is a serious problem that need to be resolved.

 

I would suggest looking for an AMSOIL dealer in your area. I have run this oil in all my cars for the last 20 years. It is initially expensive, but is completely worth the cost and investment. The car will run better and last many, many miles longer.

 

I would suggest that AMSOIL is better than Mobil1, maybe. But as a guy who has actually torn down engines after 150 Kmiles of Mobil1 I say so what! Law of diminishing returns.
Is mfr cylinder crosshatch, no ridge, and bearings still in tolerance after 190kmiles on a turbo 2.3L good enough?

Read UP .. he needs to change oil every 3 k or 3 months, because of condensation. Nothing about Amsoil can change that. I dont even recommend Mobil1 for him if he has a problem affording $30 for oil, every 3 month oil change.

 

well the oil is changed to 5w30 and the lifter is ticking a little with the hood closed you almost can't hear it but the motor is still hot. I will check it in the morning and I am going on a short trip tomorrow and we will see what happen. a friend recommend that I try motor honey added to the oil I have never heard of it. any comments on it?

also while I was under the hood I replaced the PCV valve. it was the OEM that came on the truck, go figure
yellowish brown and slimy