1995 2.5L Lifter Replacement Experience and Lessons Learned

JeepDawg25

New Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2022
Messages
8
Location
Atlanta
I made a separate thread that touched on this but wanted to put this out there since I am sure others are in my same position and thinking about replacing lifters on the 2.5L to get rid of some ticking.

My situation:
  • 1995 Wrangler 2.5L manual with 162k miles
  • Engine tick at roughly 1/2 of RPMs (i.e. idling at 1000 RPM would generate an estimated 500 ticks/minute)
  • Ticking would start about 45 seconds after a cold start, and a hot start would tick immediately. Never went away until shutting down the vehicle, regardless of trip duration or operating temp.
I bought a set of lifters, rocker arms, pushrods, and bridges from RockAuto, picked up a lifter extraction tool from Amazon (CTA Tools 2210), and some assembly lube. Steps to replace:
  • Put new lifters into oil. I didn't clean them first but should have.
  • Unhooked air intake tube for easier access. Unbolted throttle cable. Buzzed off the valve cover bolts and removed valve cover.
  • 1/2 socket easily removed rocker bolts. Set rockers/pushrods/bridges to side on a carefully labeled cardboard box. Important to keep these aligned, even if you bought new components (spoiler alert)
  • Lifter removal tool was fairly easy to use. Practiced on new lifters to get a feel for it.
  • Unbolted MAP sensor bracket from firewall in order to access rear-most lifter bore
  • Performed removal steps in reverse to drop in the new components. Coated underside of lifters, pushrod ends, and rocker bridge contact points in assembly lube.
  • Tightened rocker arms to 21 ft/lbs, switching from side to side in order to torque evenly without bending the fulcrums.
  • No need to turn the crank - torqueing to proper spec is good enough. I turned the crank just to visually confirm rocker arm movements.
  • Got valve cover back on, all electrical and vacuums hooked back up. Put a ZDDP additive in the crankcase to help with the break in.
  • Performed break in - I only did 15 minutes of 1800-2500 RPMs. Will go into more detail later, but I think this is where I made a mistake. Should have immediately gone to 3000 RPMS and gone 20-30 minutes fluctuating between 2500-3000 RPMS.
What happened next and the beginning of my problems:
  • Went for a quick (2 mile) drive. All felt good, thought I was good to go. No ticking!
  • On the return trip, noticed a hesitation/sputter around 2200 RPMs. By the time I got home, the sputter would occur anytime I exceeded 1200 RPMs.
  • Pulled into garage, looking at engine bay, idle got SUPER rough. Entire block shaking, spitting black soot from tailpipe. Shut it down.
  • Over the course of the next week, did general troubleshooting. Idled with valve cover removed and saw making it to all rockers so I assumed there was a sensor or electrical issue that might have been caused by the valve cover removal (or even potentially completely unrelated)
  • After no progress, I went back into the valvetrain and removed all the new components - saw excessive wear on the #2 intake lifter. Deduced misfires were due to an improperly functioning valve due to that lifter.
  • Thought about doing full camshaft replacement since I couldn't easily tell if the lobe was damaged. Decided to simply re-install the old components and move forward with camshaft/lifter/timing chain replacement if/when the symptoms reappeared.
  • Repeated same install process as above, putting all valvetrain components back EXACTLY where they came from. Used more assembly lube.
  • Break in process - 25 minutes at 2500-3000 RPMs to make sure cam stayed properly lubricated. Changed oil and filter. Repeated 25 minute break-in process between 2500-3000 RPMs.
  • Went for a 20 mile drive - no issues, and shockingly, no ticking has returned.​
Here are my key takeaways if you want to try this lifter replacement on your 2.5L
  • All my issues aside, it was actually pretty easy to get the old stuff out and the new stuff in.
  • Use the CTA tool mentioned above to get lifters out, not the 4 prong option that Amazon suggests. You want two flanges at the bottom of the tool to fit between the retainer clip on the lifter.
  • Remove the MAP sensor bracket - will be an extreme headache getting to rear lifter if you don't.
  • Clean your new lifters - they come coated in rust inhibitor and I didn't clean them prior to dropping them in. Did it cause a failure? Who knows but it can't have helped.
  • Don't underestimate the break-in process and give it the proper time and diligence. I rushed it the first time because I read posts from others who just dropped in the new lifters and drove like usual - that might work sometimes but there is nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing a proper camshaft break-in.
  • Use ZDDP additive to help with wear. Probably best practice to do this with every oil change anyways. I would also recommend using fresh oil before you even start the replacement process - mine was only 500 miles old so I didn't bother other than adding ZDDP.
  • Finally, I would recommend taking out your old lifters and cleaning them to see if that solves your issue before putting in new components. Maintaining the wear patterns in these old engines should be priority number one, in my opinion. My lifter failure could have been caused by improper break-in, but also perhaps could have been due to the tighter tolerances on new rockers/bridges/push rods. New components on old engines doesn't always mean improvement.

If you are looking to go through this process, feel free to ask and I will give you my observations from my installation - I learned a lot, probably moreso because of the lifter failure than anything else.
 
I made a separate thread that touched on this but wanted to put this out there since I am sure others are in my same position and thinking about replacing lifters on the 2.5L to get rid of some ticking.

My situation:
  • 1995 Wrangler 2.5L manual with 162k miles
  • Engine tick at roughly 1/2 of RPMs (i.e. idling at 1000 RPM would generate an estimated 500 ticks/minute)
  • Ticking would start about 45 seconds after a cold start, and a hot start would tick immediately. Never went away until shutting down the vehicle, regardless of trip duration or operating temp.
I bought a set of lifters, rocker arms, pushrods, and bridges from RockAuto, picked up a lifter extraction tool from Amazon (CTA Tools 2210), and some assembly lube. Steps to replace:
  • Put new lifters into oil. I didn't clean them first but should have.
  • Unhooked air intake tube for easier access. Unbolted throttle cable. Buzzed off the valve cover bolts and removed valve cover.
  • 1/2 socket easily removed rocker bolts. Set rockers/pushrods/bridges to side on a carefully labeled cardboard box. Important to keep these aligned, even if you bought new components (spoiler alert)
  • Lifter removal tool was fairly easy to use. Practiced on new lifters to get a feel for it.
  • Unbolted MAP sensor bracket from firewall in order to access rear-most lifter bore
  • Performed removal steps in reverse to drop in the new components. Coated underside of lifters, pushrod ends, and rocker bridge contact points in assembly lube.
  • Tightened rocker arms to 21 ft/lbs, switching from side to side in order to torque evenly without bending the fulcrums.
  • No need to turn the crank - torqueing to proper spec is good enough. I turned the crank just to visually confirm rocker arm movements.
  • Got valve cover back on, all electrical and vacuums hooked back up. Put a ZDDP additive in the crankcase to help with the break in.
  • Performed break in - I only did 15 minutes of 1800-2500 RPMs. Will go into more detail later, but I think this is where I made a mistake. Should have immediately gone to 3000 RPMS and gone 20-30 minutes fluctuating between 2500-3000 RPMS.
What happened next and the beginning of my problems:
  • Went for a quick (2 mile) drive. All felt good, thought I was good to go. No ticking!
  • On the return trip, noticed a hesitation/sputter around 2200 RPMs. By the time I got home, the sputter would occur anytime I exceeded 1200 RPMs.
  • Pulled into garage, looking at engine bay, idle got SUPER rough. Entire block shaking, spitting black soot from tailpipe. Shut it down.
  • Over the course of the next week, did general troubleshooting. Idled with valve cover removed and saw making it to all rockers so I assumed there was a sensor or electrical issue that might have been caused by the valve cover removal (or even potentially completely unrelated)
  • After no progress, I went back into the valvetrain and removed all the new components - saw excessive wear on the #2 intake lifter. Deduced misfires were due to an improperly functioning valve due to that lifter.
  • Thought about doing full camshaft replacement since I couldn't easily tell if the lobe was damaged. Decided to simply re-install the old components and move forward with camshaft/lifter/timing chain replacement if/when the symptoms reappeared.
  • Repeated same install process as above, putting all valvetrain components back EXACTLY where they came from. Used more assembly lube.
  • Break in process - 25 minutes at 2500-3000 RPMs to make sure cam stayed properly lubricated. Changed oil and filter. Repeated 25 minute break-in process between 2500-3000 RPMs.
  • Went for a 20 mile drive - no issues, and shockingly, no ticking has returned.​
Here are my key takeaways if you want to try this lifter replacement on your 2.5L
  • All my issues aside, it was actually pretty easy to get the old stuff out and the new stuff in.
  • Use the CTA tool mentioned above to get lifters out, not the 4 prong option that Amazon suggests. You want two flanges at the bottom of the tool to fit between the retainer clip on the lifter.
  • Remove the MAP sensor bracket - will be an extreme headache getting to rear lifter if you don't.
  • Clean your new lifters - they come coated in rust inhibitor and I didn't clean them prior to dropping them in. Did it cause a failure? Who knows but it can't have helped.
  • Don't underestimate the break-in process and give it the proper time and diligence. I rushed it the first time because I read posts from others who just dropped in the new lifters and drove like usual - that might work sometimes but there is nothing to lose and everything to gain by doing a proper camshaft break-in.
  • Use ZDDP additive to help with wear. Probably best practice to do this with every oil change anyways. I would also recommend using fresh oil before you even start the replacement process - mine was only 500 miles old so I didn't bother other than adding ZDDP.
  • Finally, I would recommend taking out your old lifters and cleaning them to see if that solves your issue before putting in new components. Maintaining the wear patterns in these old engines should be priority number one, in my opinion. My lifter failure could have been caused by improper break-in, but also perhaps could have been due to the tighter tolerances on new rockers/bridges/push rods. New components on old engines doesn't always mean improvement.

If you are looking to go through this process, feel free to ask and I will give you my observations from my installation - I learned a lot, probably moreso because of the lifter failure than anything else.
JeepDawg - I'm getting ready to do the very same component swap. I have a "valve-train" noise on deceleration somewhere around the oil cap location in the valve train. I'm assuming it's from a bent push-rod that occurred when I re-installed the head (had to solve for an exhaust leak ... longer story). Anyways, bent a push-rod on re-assembly, and had to install a new one. I may have bent its partner and didn't notice. Looking forward to utilizing your break-in technique. Although, I'm curious - did you do this to seat the lifters to the lobes on the cam? You didn't install a new cam, and that's usually a new cam break-in technique.