WOW! I own an 89 Ranger 2.9 and I am going thru the same thing you are. The only difference is that one of my lifter/pushrods is tapping really bad so I'm going to be replacing the lifter on that one. The way I found the tapping pushrod is I took of the valve covers and started the engine to observe the pushrods and see if they were staying wet with oil. Which revieled the bad lifter not providing oil to the pushrod. One thing that helped the tapping is I added half to 3/4 of a quart of transmission oil and ran it for about a week. Transmission oil has a high level of detergent, this was to loosen sludge that may have been clogging the lifter. Then I changed oil/oil filter and added a hole bottle of LUCAS oil stabilizer to the new oil change substituting the proper amount of oil. And as I started the engine I could hear the tapping gradually go AWAY!! I'm still going to change the lifter and also replace the engine oil pump which will run $70-$80 and $20-$30 for the gasket. The lifter was $6 and the intake manifold gasket was $44, valve cover gasket is $11. I'll now need a good/cold six pack of Coors Light, a Styx CD and follow the Chiltons manual very carefully. Wish me luck!
Lou
From Haleiwa (N Shore) Hawaii
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