Over Revved in First

[No.11]

The other day I stepped on it, for some reason thinking I was in 2nd gear, and I was standing on it for too long until I felt the car kind of just stop making power and I let go of the gas, I looked at the tach and saw it coming down from way past redline. Afterwards it started making this weird salt shaker noise. It sometimes sounds like 3 shakes at a time, then a second in between, then 3 shakes, a second, and it goes on and on. I ran the codes but could not find anything special. Just code 31 which has been annoying me for quite some time and code 51 which recently returned.

I don't dare take it to wot for fear of really fudging it up. Any ideas? The noise seems to come from somewhere in the vicinity of the bellhousing towards the drivers side, which leads me to believe it might be a bad throwout bearing or the clutch or something. Any help with this is, as always, greatly appreciated!

Edit: Performance hasnt really felt affected as of yet. Then again I haven't really checked. I did drive it for about 20 miles before finally letting it rest though, without anything but that noise bothering me.

 

[No.11]

here's a video

 

[95Vert383AOD]

Personally i would Cross my fingers, remove valve covers and check rockers, push rods and springs....If nothing is bent or broken there then i would pull the motor. Either way you don't want to drive like that.

 

[No.11]

any other ideas so I don't tear anything off? anything that could be wrong in the vicinity of the bellhousing? that's definitely where the sound is coming from.

although I could use this as an excuse to put in a stroker hehehe...

 

[txstang84]

FWIW, the factory tach is known to be slightly inaccurate, and unless you've programmed the computer to ignore the factory 6250 rev limiter you probably didn't actually over-rev it, and the power loss would be the normal running out of cam vs. rpm. It is possible that you tore up your t/o bearing, but you'd probably know that just by driving it...a bad one usually transmits some feedback through the pedal in the form of vibration thumping or grinding. Do you have a mechanix stethoscope? One of the best $8 diagnostic tools one can own...

 

[No.11]

I wouldnt doubt if it was the TO bearing, as I didn't change it when I had the transmission dropped. But then again I didn't really feel any feedback through the pedal. I'm really hoping it's not an issue with the internals, but if its a blown head gasket or something wrong with the valvetrain I definitely want to take the opportunity to finally get rid of the stock heads. I've had two chances when I had the heads off and didn't upgrade, for lack of money.

Hmmm gonna look into the stetho thingy, does it really help you pinpoint where noise is coming from?

 

[castine917]

Doctors and mechanics have used them for years to pinpoint problems.

 

[95Vert383AOD]

Usually really high revs have been known to bend push rods. I'm not saying it is but a bent push rod could def. make that sound. I cant talk anymore because i just got back from the bar and the GF is staring at me looking for loving. She gets jealous of stangnet.

 

[txstang84]

Ha ha!! Well, I hope you took care of that 'vert! Anyway, he's right, high rpms can bend pushrods, but check everything over with the stethoscope and report back. Just point to where you suspect the noise may be coming from, and listen...vary position as necessary and, obviously, don't touch anything that moves or rotates. As for the head gasket, you can check oil for coolant, coolant for bubbles or fuel vapors, and compression...but, if you spit a gasket, it would probably be running a little "off." If no problems there, then you should be good. I'm with 'vert though...hoping it's something simple.

Here's some other things you can try. Does the noise vary in intensity when you bring the rpms up? If you disco and replace the plug wires one at a time does the noise change or go away? (do be careful performing that one...it can be a very shocking experience)

 

[Blown88GT]

...The noise seems to come from somewhere in the vicinity of the bellhousing towards the drivers side...

Exhaust pipe hitting the body?

 

[No.11]

I will pick up a stethoscope and try it out and report back. also found that one of my wires was touching the header. must have happened recently because I check my engine bay often and it wasn't touching a day before the little incident.

been wanting to get rid of the ford racing wires...

 

[Rick 91GT]

Its a weird sound...

Did you rev it, does the sound go increase with the revs?

IF you have a plug wire that hit the header and it is arcing that could be your culprit as it is not firing completly or at all in that cylinder. The Ford Racing wires are junk and have a ton of resistance, go with a set from Taylor.

 

[No.11]

I moved the burnt wire away from the header and the sound seems to be gone. there was a little bit of burning but it didn't penetrate the boot. still, to be safe I'm gonna go with the Taylor wires. would their $29.99 street thunder wires work pretty well or should I be looking at their $80 thundervolt wires for lower resistance than the ford wires?

 

[VibrantRedGT]

I over revved my car one day, throttle spring popped off and snagged onto a vacuum line. Motor was bouncing off the rev limiter for a few seconds, turned the key off. On the side of the road I found the problem, fixed it and drove it home. The next day the car was sputtering like it wasn't on all 8. Popped the valve covers off. Touched every rocker and sure enough broken valve spring. Changed 1 valve spring and all was well. Hopefully yours held up. That high of RPM for awhile can hurt something in milliseconds it seems.

 

[Rick 91GT]

I prefer the thundervolts

 

[larrym1961]

I have had 2 differant sets of those Ford Racing plug wires and that was the problem I had with both of them. They would eventually fall against the header and burn thru. When this happened I opened my hood because of a miss the burned wire caused and I heard a ticking sound similar to the one you were having and that sound I was hearing was the spark arking to the header from the burned thru wire.

Well I won't buy those Ford Racing wires any more just because of that.

 

[srtthis]

I prefer the thundervolts

you tried moroso ultra 40's or firecore 50's?

 

[txstang84]

Sooo, the noise is gone?

 

[No.11]

it seems to be gone. I'm still going to monitor it and replace those wires ASAP. and yes, never again ford racing wires! thundervolts are looking pretty good.

 

[Stever89]

Another Ford Racing wire failure here, the notorious #5 plug boot caused a very similar sound. I also over-revved mine a while back and posted about it here... I also felt a power loss at the peak like you but I'm pretty sure it was just the valves floating. No damage.

I think you're alright. Other than that sound, the engine/exhaust sounded fine.