Grinding sound and running rough

[earnbud]

Got a 96' 4.0L has about 172,000 miles on it , i just noticed today after leaving a fast food place then when i pressed on the gas slowly i heard a grinding sound it almost sounded like it was coming from the left front area but after speeding up a bit the sound goes away , now i was told my inner tie rod needs to be replaced but i haven't had the money to fix it , could that be the cause or something else

Also ive had issues off and on with it running rough , it runs rough for a little for a few days then its fine again well i noticed today that it seems to mostly run rough as soon as a start the explorer but the odd thing is once i put it into drive its no longer running rough and ive replaced the spark plugs and when taking out the old ones i noticed rust on the part of the spark plug that goes into the engine and before replacing the spark plugs off and on the vehicle would jerk like it was a transmission problem but once i replaced the spark plugs the problem went away and it went away for 2 or 3 months and just recently it came back , now i never had enough money to replace my spark plug wires and i finally got those so hopefully that will help , but other then checking the vacuum lines or something im not sure what else could be the reason for it running rough

Tomorrow im gonna go ahead and replace the plug wires and also clean my maf and iac in hopes that it no longer runs rough , but is there anything else it could be

 

[earnbud]

Can someone please help me with this

 

[swetrid]

Sounds like you might have head gasket or cracked head problem. It usually takes awhile for the coolant to foul out the spark plugs.

 

[earnbud]

Well i think the spark plugs were very old , i was told it could also be caused by putting some type of additive in the fuel , but im mostly wondering why it runs rough while parked and the grinding sound