Tappin Tina

[Bryan]

Hey guys, I don't even know if anybody remembers me, it's been a real long time. But anywho...

before I start I want eveyone to know that my father is the king of knowledge when it comes to knowing about my car (or any car especially GM, hes been rebuilding engines and doing body work on cars since he was 14 years old, and is currently the service manager at a Chevy dealer in PA) but I still want some advice because he's in a state of denial because he has to find a way to get her intake leak fixed, and now solve my new issue, which is why I'm here.

Sorry that took so long. The issue is apparently "sticky lifters", which we are assuming was caused by sludgy oil (since he's been reluctant to take my car in and now she's 7,000 miles over due for an oil change). The engine started making a tapping sound the other day, after about an hour of driving. The tapping sounded just like she does first thing in a cold morning, tappin like a sun of a you know what, just the lifters makin noise cuz their cold, right? Right. But the tapping got louder, and I could feel it through the engine and the engine was lagging behind, she barely had any passing power on the highway. I took it home immeadiately and waitied for him to get home to listen to it. He came homw and listened, said he felt nothing wrong with the gas pedal and merely a tapping. He said the tapping was sticky lifters, so I needed to go to Pep Boys and buy "Marvels Mystery Oil" to clean my lifters. So I did, and I've only put about 60 miles on it since I added it to my oil. He said it may get worse, and it may go away. Either way it will stop, you just have to run it through the whole system. But my concern is meanwhile while I'm doing everything I can to get the shtuff through her system, the engine feels really sluggish, which he hasn't felt it to agree, and he says that the sticky lifters probably wont cause that, (is that true?) and I don't mean really sluggish, I mean a faint surge feeling and a grinding ontop of the tapping FEELING when I hit the gas. It's managble if I drive like a snail, but a pain on the highway. In addition, there is now a random knocking noise inside the engine, comes and goes when it pleases, and sounds like something is loose. What could this be? Could it be more than sticky lifters? He's waiting for a day that he can take my car in and fix it, but I want a second opinion. (not because I dont trust his, but because he knows it and wont tell me for some odd reason.) I really need to know if she's safe to drive because I'm gonna drive her daily until someone tells me otherwise.

The poor thing has 204,000 miles on her, 98,000 miles of those are mine from the past 2 and a half years. Yea, I put 40,000 miles on her a year, an average of 3,000 miles a month, and 110 miles a day on her. I love her so much and she has been excellent to me, she's my best friend and shes never ever let me down. The fact that her intake is leaking is the biggest problem she's ever had aside from a water pump. And one time I overfilled the coolant (her coolant has always leaked just a little bit and it's just gotten worse) so the pressure built up and cracked the tank. So now I'm faced with this tapping which I'm beginning to think isn't what it seems, because even though the oil is old she gets alot of constant 45-65mph driving and her oil looks perfect, so this is getting downright scary to me, I literally cry when I think something is wrong with her. I rear ended someone a few months ago and the first thing I tried to protect was her, not my girl. The first thing I said when I got out of the car when I faced the woman I hit was "OH!!!!!!!! MY F-ING CAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PULL INTO THE PARKING LOT". And as I drove into the parking lot to wait for the cops I sobbed the whole time. That's how obsessed I am with her and I just thought I should share that with all of you.

any help at all as soon as possible would be peachy. danke