Cars are intricate machines that rely on a series of chemical and mechanical processes to work properly. When things go wrong with one of those processes, your car can start to make some strange ...

Q: I have a 1996 Ford Ranger that sat for about a year that I would like to fix up. Everything was okay with it before it sat. Now it has a rapping noise that I think is a stuck lifter. I changed the ...

Owners of 5.7 and 6.4 Hemi V8s are not imagining things when they hear that sharp tick at idle or face a four-figure repair ...

Engines are incredibly complex. They are made out of thousands of different parts, exposed to high temperatures, and have lots of moving parts. This leaves many potential pain points an engine can ...

From the archives: The beauty of hydraulic lifters is that they self-compensate for valvetrain clearances, doing away with the need for valvetrain adjustment. To celebrate HOT ROD's 75th anniversary, ...

The engines of yesteryear were pretty simple, with tappets clackity-clacking away on cam lobes, opening valves, and making a ruckus while doing it. Mechanical lifters were adequate for valve operation ...