Ticking sound in 4.6L motor

FastRedPonyCar · Dec 31, 2003

mine's been ticking for over a year. have a 91 explorer that's been ticking for 6 years. I just figure it's a ford thing.

No loss of power, no funny idle just a slight tick from the passenger side. Oh well...

yellow5.0cobra · Dec 31, 2003

If its a LOUD knock, and sounds like a baseball card on the back of a bycicle tire, and goes with the rpm's. Its a ROD.

pdsq98gt · Dec 31, 2003

Is your Check Engine light on? If so, have the codes scanned. If it were an injector, it would have thrown a P0300 code indicating a misfire. If the noise occurs at half the engine rpms then it is from the valve train (lash adjusters, cam followers, valves). If it is occuring at engine rpms then it is in the internals, (main bearing, rod, wrist pin, piston). This will help narrow it down. I would do a compression test to see if all of the cylinders have near equal pressures.
Hope this helps

saleen195 · Dec 31, 2003

Do you have aftermarket headers installed? Sometimes if the bolts come loose from the vibration, air gets sucked in and the gasket must be replaced. Had this ticking noise before but can't exactly say that that's what's wrong with yours.

KaPPaBaLL · Jan 1, 2004

yellow5.0cobra said:
If its a LOUD knock, and sounds like a baseball card on the back of a bycicle tire, and goes with the rpm's. Its a ROD.

nice stereotypical avatar you have there.

sapperstang78 · Jan 1, 2004

Drive slowly next to a wall. If you hear a loud ticking then you might have the ticking that is outlined in a TSB for these cars. I think someone posted it above. My 01 had this problem. It was quite obvious.

Nuar · Nov 19, 2004

My car just developed this ticking last week.
I took the car to ford and all they did is take 80 bucks out of my pocket, and told me they need more time to take the exhaust off and lift the engine to check the headers for leaks...
BS!
If there is a TSB for the ticking, should they fix this free of charge? (no warranty left my car has over 61,000 miles )
Or am i screwed, and i'll have to pay?...
If i have to pay, how much do you think they will charge me?

mustang70 · Nov 19, 2004

I think it may be something from the bottom end. The reason I'm saying this is because of the loss in power. Since you were running around and autocross all day there's a chance the oil got hot and lost it's lubricating properties. Or the pickup became uncovered at some point. It doesn't take long at high rpm with low oil pressure to wipe out a bearing.

mogs01gt · Nov 19, 2004

Nuar said:
My car just developed this ticking last week.
I took the car to ford and all they did is take 80 bucks out of my pocket, and told me they need more time to take the exhaust off and lift the engine to check the headers for leaks...
BS!
If there is a TSB for the ticking, should they fix this free of charge? (no warranty left my car has over 61,000 miles )
Or am i screwed, and i'll have to pay?...
If i have to pay, how much do you think they will charge me?

Where is the ticking coming from? Driver side, passenger side, top of motor, back of motor??????

1fast03pony · Nov 19, 2004

I had them check my motor for the ticking anyway even though i didnt hear any- they used a mechanical ear or something, and determined there was no noise.

The TSB outlines a procedure to follow if they do find the noise- but without the warranty it might cost you
I believe the TSB deals with defective valve guides, thus the valves make contact with the guides and make noise

98stangv8 · Nov 19, 2004

GTvert01 said:
I had a spun bearing in my 01 that did the same thing.Luckily ford took care of it for me via a new engine.

mine wasn't a tick when i sput a bearing...more of a knock....getting forged internals to replace those...NOT happening again!

Nuar · Nov 19, 2004

mogs01gt said:
Where is the ticking coming from? Driver side, passenger side, top of motor, back of motor??????

It sounds like its coming from the passenger side of the motor... all the way up by the firewall... You can hear it REALLY well inside the wheel well... I think it got louder over the past few days....

stangman · Nov 19, 2004

my official diagnosis is a spun bearing & here's why...............

the 4.6 motors are known for spun bearings, they don't like being low on oil. if you had been auto crossing all day & didn't have a racing oil pan, it's very possible it's a spun rod bearing. now it could be a rod, but unless you have removed the rev-limiter, & were spinning it to 6500+ all day, i wouldn't think it would be that. JOM, i-nor anyone here- can 100% diagnosis this over the net, we'd have to tear into the engine to tell you for sure. My money is on a bearing though, sorry to hear about it though

Nuar · Nov 20, 2004

c2see21 said:
my official diagnosis is a spun bearing & here's why...............

the 4.6 motors are known for spun bearings, they don't like being low on oil. if you had been auto crossing all day & didn't have a racing oil pan, it's very possible it's a spun rod bearing. now it could be a rod, but unless you have removed the rev-limiter, & were spinning it to 6500+ all day, i wouldn't think it would be that. JOM, i-nor anyone here- can 100% diagnosis this over the net, we'd have to tear into the engine to tell you for sure. My money is on a bearing though, sorry to hear about it though

Just to let you know i'm not the same person that started this topic on "12-29-03, 09:23 PM" i used search and found this, then i replied.
I didnt autocross, my car is simply a daily driven stang that i do not baby anymore, it gets driven pretty hard... and there is no power loss with the ticking in my scenario. just ticking,,, gets faster as the RPMs rise. but it does seem like it got louder over the past few days...
I dont know what to do about this... think i'll take a printout of the TSB to the stealership with me on monday and have them read the damn thing. Last time i went they only put my car up on a lift, and told me they cant tell me anything without removing the exhaust and lifting up the engine a little to check the header to head connection... oh yeah and they took 80 bucks for that

03 Pony · Nov 22, 2004

Now this is why I love Stangnet Forums - Brothers helping brothers!

My 2003 GT 4.6 was built before August 2003 and just started ticking before I put it in storage and I will bring it to the dealership once I take it out. She only has 15,000 miles on her. That's right she is babied!

Thanks to all those Stang Dudes that post.

mogs01gt · Nov 22, 2004

Nuar said:
It sounds like its coming from the passenger side of the motor... all the way up by the firewall... You can hear it REALLY well inside the wheel well... I think it got louder over the past few days....

sounds like an exhaust leak. Before getting drastic, check all the bolts on the manifold.

Nuar · Nov 22, 2004

mogs01gt said:
sounds like an exhaust leak. Before getting drastic, check all the bolts on the manifold.

Its not an exhaust leak, i had one before, and it sounded different.
I went back to the dealership today.. They told me that the replacement head is gonna be $1200 and about 20 HOURS OF LABOR! "plus a couple of hundred bucks for misc parts and fluids." so total around 3k....
I had one of their stang ppl listen to my car, and he told me not to worry about the ticking if i didnt notice any powerloss or driveablity issues. Its in the head, but not serious enough to blow 3k on it.

Guess when the time comes, i'll get some nice ported heads with a set of cams to go with them. For now i'm waiting.... with a timebomb ticking under my hood lol

Ticking sound in 4.6L motor

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