5.0 engine ticking question

[Turdle]

Stop right where you are. I bet the ticking is on the passenger side of the engine. If this is correct, you need to remove the passenger side exhaust manifold and replace it with a non broken one. as suggested earlier, you have to remove the manifold to see the cracks.

Rarely do these engines have valvetrain issues. Very rarely. Almost unheard of in here. However 98% or more of them develop cracked manifolds.


Those lifters look fine. If there was an issue in the valvetrain you would see it on the rollers--I see no evidence of slamming

 

[CDW6212R]

Stop right where you are. I bet the ticking is on the passenger side of the engine. If this is correct, you need to remove the passenger side exhaust manifold and replace it with a non broken one. as suggested earlier, you have to remove the manifold to see the cracks.

Rarely do these engines have valvetrain issues. Very rarely. Almost unheard of in here. However 98% or more of them develop cracked manifolds.


Those lifters look fine. If there was an issue in the valvetrain you would see it on the rollers--I see no evidence of slamming

I agree, that's why I asked if the rockers were stock. Only roller rockers generally will create extra valvetrain noises. So the manifold is the best bet, hopefully the bolts come out easily.

 

[ewalt98]

I have the tubular type manifolds. I have heard and seen a few cracked cast manifolds, and they were pretty obvious sounding. Will the tubular manifolds on 5.0 really sound, to me at least, like a mechanical valve train issue? The noise does change, going from fairly loud to almost quite, but not necessarily consistent with engine speed.

Really appreciate the help guys. Pretty embarrassing driving next to buildings...

 

[Turdle]

The tubular type are the ones prone to being cracked. Cast are better, 99-up and some late 98's have them. The crack will be under the heat shielding.

 

[Mbrooks420]

Agree 100% with Jon. Tubular manifolds essentially all fail. Unless yours has been replaced at some point, it’s almost surely cracked. The sound starts loud, and sounds exactly like valve train noise, and will typically quiet a little as the motor warms up, and the crack expands together.

 

[Turdle]

The tubular style are the ones prone to cracking. Under the heat shields, invisible without removal, you will find this. And yes, it makes a heck of a racket. Sounds like a blown motor, increasing sound with throttle, rhythmic like a thrown rod.

 

[ewalt98]

OK all, I am back at it!
Searched for the source of the tick, including listening as best I could for an exhaust leak, but it just sounded like it was coming from the passenger side valve cover (using my stethoscope).
Sounded like a bit of a rattle along with the tick around number 4 cylinder.
Warmed up the motor, and pulled the passenger valve cover off, and went through the proper zero lash torque procedure for number 4, and it seems good till I hand rotate the motor, and with one cycle, the number 4 intake feels very loose and I can depress the lifter. All other lifters are rock solid. I did it three times...
These are all brand new Ford motorsports lifters. Guess I could have gotten a bad one? I randomly pulled out the old lifters and tried to decompress them, and all but one was rock solid after a month of sitting on the bench.

Not really sure I want to pull the intake off again.

Now, if the cam lobe was bad, then I could not achieve zero lash and the proper torque between 1/4 and 3/4 turns, right?
Can I just drive it another 25k till I hit 400k? I really like driving it, most everything still works, and it drives real well.

This is the procedure I used, from the corral (Michael Yount):

"To install pedestal mount rockers:

1) For each pair (int/exh) be sure you rotate the engine so the lifters are on the base circle of the cam - this is very important. When you install the rockers, both valves must remain closed. Neither lifter can be on any part of the cam lobe - they MUST be on the base circle.
2) Install the rocker and bolt it down to zero lash. Zero lash is reached just when you eliminate the gap between the pushrod and the rocker and the valve stem and the rocker. Tighten with one hand and 'rock' the rocker with the other hand. Just when you reach the point that you can't rock the rocker anymore you're at zero lash.
3) Now - put your torque wrench on it and tighten to 18-20 ft-lbs. while counting the number of turns it takes to reach that torque. It should occur between 1/4 turns and 1 turn. If it takes more than one turn, use a shim to raise the rocker. For each .030" shim you use, you'll reduce the number of turns to torque by about 1/4. If it takes less than 1/4 turn, or you have trouble reaching zero lash even with the bolt torqued all the way to 18-20, then you need longer pushrods.
4) If all goes well on the install, crank it up. If some make noise let the car warm up completely. Then (unfortunately) go back through the install procedure with the components warm. That will usually quiet them down.

 

[shucker1]

That #4 intake lifter is bleeding down for some reason. The should all be solid.

You might have a small piece of junk stuck in the check ball letting bleed out.

Their easy to take apart just a PITA to get out of the engine.

Running with a bad lifter you run the risk of snapping a valve head off or scuffing a cam lobe.

Think of you lifters as shock absorbers. If one is bad your going to put more wear somewhere else.

 

[ewalt98]

I replaced the offending lifter with a new one, and I still have an issue with the #4 intake being loose. So I am guessing that the cam has some wear on it.
Could I go to a slightly longer pushrod, like 6.30 to compensate for the cam wear? Might need a longer pushrod and shim to get the preload just right?

I know I should check the cam's lift, but I don't think I have the proper tools for that.

 

[ewalt98]

Now that things are starting to thaw here, I took some time this weekend to replace the passenger exhaust manifold.
A few months ago, I picked up a pair of used cast iron manifolds. Finally, pulled the passenger tubular manifold off yesterday, and, found a series of fissures on the #4 exhaust pipe before the collector. I little either sprayed inside showed that they are the source of some noise.
The whole process was surprisingly easy. All the bolts came out, and I only had to replace a few that were too rusted to reuse. The hardest part was getting the EGR tube adapter off the old egr tube from the donor car.
Still have a noisy valve train and injectors, though...but, the really loud ticking is gone. Yeah!

 

[Mbrooks420]

Knew it was the manifold.