On my 1987 5.0, I've developed a clicking/metallic clank sound in the engine compartment. The noise happens when you are acceleration, a little, at WOT, or anywhere in between. It doesn't happen while idling, or coasting down a hill etc. Speed doesn't matter, if i am maintaining 30mph, or 80mph, it doesn't make the noise. It appears to have started after I did my intake gasket swap, but it could be coincidental. I tried tightening the bolts on the intake just to be sure, but that didn't stop the noise. It seems to be a clicking or ticking noise similar to an exhaust tick. But it appears to be coming from higher up, somewhere near the intake. I can't seem to pinpoint it, as I need two people, one in the car with it running with it in D, one foot on the brake one on the gas a little. The noise will not happen in park of in neutral, only in while in gear, car had an AOD. So I am ruling out a piece of gasket or debris inside the motor, from the gasket swap, as it would make noise in park and neutral too, right? I checked the timing, after the distributor was removed to replace the “O”-ring, and its at 10*. I read on here a lot of guys run up to 14 for performance, so I bumped it up a little just to see if the noise went away, it didn’t.
I was going to try to run the car at like 8* too, but I can't turn the distributor that far back, it hits the elbow for the thermostat. Is this normal? The engine only has about 82k miles on it, I would think the cam would still be good. Everything was well maintained on the car before I got it and did the engine swap.
I checked the plugs, they are a little worn, but no signs on ping or blowby. They should be replaced, I plan on tuning the car up once I figure out what this noise is. The distributor was reset, we found TDC on the number 1 cylinder, and went from there. It appears to be a the #5 cylinder making noise (if its a cylinder), the noise is like a metallic click and it's hard to locate it, it seems to reverberate through the engine. But I can’t feel where it’s coming from, I move my hand around everywhere trying to feel a “tap tap tap” somewhere, but I can’t.
On the attached picture, this is the motor shortly after it was put in the car and you can see where the distributor and TFI are located. This was before the intake gaskets were done and there was no noise. The yellow line represents roughly where the TFI sits now, it’s as close to the thermostat housing as possible, and it’s touching it. Now if I move the distributor counter clockwise to move towards where it used to be the engine runs real rough
I just feel the problem has to be related to something that was disturbed when the upper and lower intakes were taken off because it didn't make the noise before.
I was going to try to run the car at like 8* too, but I can't turn the distributor that far back, it hits the elbow for the thermostat. Is this normal? The engine only has about 82k miles on it, I would think the cam would still be good. Everything was well maintained on the car before I got it and did the engine swap.
I checked the plugs, they are a little worn, but no signs on ping or blowby. They should be replaced, I plan on tuning the car up once I figure out what this noise is. The distributor was reset, we found TDC on the number 1 cylinder, and went from there. It appears to be a the #5 cylinder making noise (if its a cylinder), the noise is like a metallic click and it's hard to locate it, it seems to reverberate through the engine. But I can’t feel where it’s coming from, I move my hand around everywhere trying to feel a “tap tap tap” somewhere, but I can’t.
On the attached picture, this is the motor shortly after it was put in the car and you can see where the distributor and TFI are located. This was before the intake gaskets were done and there was no noise. The yellow line represents roughly where the TFI sits now, it’s as close to the thermostat housing as possible, and it’s touching it. Now if I move the distributor counter clockwise to move towards where it used to be the engine runs real rough
I just feel the problem has to be related to something that was disturbed when the upper and lower intakes were taken off because it didn't make the noise before.