96 XLT tapping under the hood

[sky1962]

Long story short...I'm 500 miles from home and this tapping starts coming from under the hood. Stopped to check the oil level and it's good, gauge is in the middle of the scale. Thought it might be a lifter, but it doesn't sound like a "normal" noisy lifter. So I drove it home gently, it ran fine and got 21MPG. So I'm thinking WTF? Don't have a stethescope so I used a long screwdriver and localized the noise around a couple of the fuel injectors.

Can a worn injector make a noise like a clattering lifter? The tapping is in time with the engine and gets louder and faster with increased RPM.

There's 224K original miles on this 5.0L AWD XLT, and I've been really lucky so far with no major repair bills.

 

[mr_valingo]

i have the same noise. truck runs fine. the oil pressure guage is a dummy guage. it either shows you have pressure (over 5psi) or you don't

 

[Joe Dirt]

Check to make sure none of your plugs is loose. My rig had a loose plug that sounded just like that.

If it starts to get quieter when the truck warms up, check your exhaust manifolds.

 

[blluebear]

Also check your EGR tube close. Mine did that for a while when it heated up. Which side of the engine did you hear the noise from?

 

[sky1962]

Plugs are all tight, will check the EGR tube, noise does not get quieter when the engine warms up. Near as I can get, the sound is coming from the top of the engine, driver's side toward the back. Using the screwdriver to listen it sounds like someone tapping on the engine with a metal hammer.

Taking it to a local shop this morning.

 

[jremington59]

You don't have an EGR tube, it's internal on the 96. Check for a crack on the passenger side exhaust manifold. At 225 thousand you're long overdo.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! A friend had a similar issue on the 2004 Taurus. The spark plug cables were loose on the top of the coil pack. Make sure that everything is tight in that area. Sounds travel around the engine, and are sometimes hard to locate at first.