2001 Explorer Sport Trac engine noise. Please help/give advice.

[Js01sporttrac]

i have an 01 sport trac 4.0sohc the past few weeks its been making a clacking noise of some sort coming from the engine, the noise only comes when engine is started and at idle and only every once and a while, like i said it only occurs when at idle and i cant distinguish where about it comes from yet, it does not increase with gas/rmps rising, its for sure not a spark plug wire ticking. ive kept really well mait on it and have always taken care of it, as of today i did new spark plugs cleaned the throttle body/iac did a professional fuel injection cleaning, and an oil/filter change with a quart of lucas oil stab as i always have since ive owned it. after all these things done i started it up ran fine and sounded great, drove it to a few places/stores and it did happen one of the times again, for the record the truck just rolled over 100,000 miles yesterday. fuel filter was done about 15,000 miles ago. ive read numerous things that it could be such as a lifter, timing chain or/and tensioned, could be something else also..... can anyone give me any advice as to what it may be???

Any advice would be great!

thanks to all members.

 

[BrooklynBay]

I've moved your thread into the 2001-2005 Sport Trac section.

 

[thunderhorse]

Check easy and cheap stuff first. Could be the heat shield on the Cat.

 

[Js01sporttrac]

its definitely not the heat shield it sounds like it coming from inside the engine, its hard to pin point it but im trying to figure out as to which direction its coming from, it comes and goes and usually im on the run and don't have the time to check it out. i started it 7 times today just for kicks and no luck with the noise, its random.

 

[bdmaash]

My truck does something similar, usually on first start of the day if it's going to do it. It sounds like there's no oil in the motor, the oils drains down and takes a few seconds to reach the top end. Just a major rattling noise.

 

[gery621]

Are you using a synthetic oil? I switched my 01 to synthetic oil (103k) and on cold starts in the morning and sometimes during the day it will make that noise too. when the oil drains down it effects the timing tension spring. common. My mechanic told me to go back to regular oil and I am going to next change to see if it resolves. hard fix as it in the back of engine against firewall. hope this helps .