I Hear Ticking

[MrQ]

Hey,

I have been hearing a ticking sound on the driver's side of the engine. It's starting to get fairly noticeable. I am wondering if it is a lifter issue and is it something to be concerned about?

 

[Willard]

Probably a lifter. And no, it's nothing to worry about. Mine has been ticking for 50,000+ miles and is still fine.

 

[Iron Weasel]

Ticking could be a lifter, exhaust leak, piston slap, or rod knock.

Where the sound is, what it sounds like, and how it behaves will give you an idea of what it is and how important it is to fix it. Ideally, any funny sounds should be taken care of, but lifters ticking can be something that you drag out and chances are it won't hurt anything. On the other hand, if it's a rod knocking around then you might want to have that fixed before you end up with a dead cylinder or a host of other problems.

 

[Hitchhikingmike]

I have read a lot about this problem in the 1st/2nd gen area of the forum.

A guy here at my dormitory told me he had a slight ticking in his OHV when I asked him about his 1st gen Ex.

It seems to come up a lot on the higher mileage OHVs.

FIRST thing, I would pop off your valve covers, grab some feeler gauges and check the clearances under your rockers and go ahead and reset the tolerances. This is usually a maintenance service on most all OHV engines traditionally anyway.

On the same token I have read that most people on the forum with the ticking OHV just live with it and it never becomes any more of a problem.

 

[BrianDye]

If its the lifters, which chances are it is, its nothing to worry about. Annoying, and will most likely get louder over time to a certain extent, but not problematic.

My old 92' did it with about 260k on the clock but thankfully it only did it until the engine got up to temp.

 

[MrQ]

Yeah I had read about it too; its just nice to be reassured that this is normal. I really am not in the mood to get into major surgery on the truck again.

 

[Foxracin]

Its a 4.0 ohv. Get used to it. lol

 

[reapereviltwin]

Its a 4.0 ohv. Get used to it. lol

This is true!! When I first started running the rig on road tests, every little sound made my blood pressure jump, now I just make sure I have the radio/cd player turned up.

 

[Slowlyvverot]

Its a 4.0 ohv. Get used to it. lol

now I just make sure I have the radio/cd player turned up.

hahaha.
what everyone else said.

 

[elbow2342]

Most likely will need the rocker arms replaced. ( easy fix compared to replacing lifters ) and a lot less expensive ..The valve lash is not adjustable on these engines..Elbow

 

[nexis]

as things start to cool down for the fall/winter I start to notice the lifter tick in my ex. 371k miles with no major work done to her. I switch from a 10w40 to 5w30 when it starts getting louder. Its ticked sense about 60k miles.

 

[SHARK X]

as things start to cool down for the fall/winter I start to notice the lifter tick in my ex. 371k miles with no major work done to her. I switch from a 10w40 to 5w30 when it starts getting louder. Its ticked sense about 60k miles.

Same with mine but he's just a twig compared to yours 156K

 

[nexis]

nod, sadly the truck is getting a little long in the tooth, and I don't know how much longer she will be with us, the rust is starting to win.

 

[huntman58]

I must be lucky over 200,000 miles and no tick and no rust may just have to keep it a few more years. Have owned it for 13 years so far hope to make it a trail rig down the line some day.

 

[walterd140]

Try a higher rated octane & see if that helps

 

[FIND]

nexis, why are you using 10w40 in an explorer anyways? Do you hate your truck?

www.bobistheoilguy.com - that is a good resource to start learning about oil.

Try a higher rated octane & see if that helps

Higher octane will not do anything for a tick, higher octane is to prevent detonation or "knock", basically the sound you hear when a car is running out of gas. All using higher octane does is help separate more money from your wallet at the pump. Explorers don't get good enough mileage for you to want to do that.

 

[manimal]

Find, Bob's is a great site, but really 10w40 is well within Ford's spec'ed range of weights for the 4.0, and an older engine probably has the tolerances to handle it if not prefer it.

My old ticking 91 OHV with 260k is still quieter than my Jeep 4.0 and certainly quieter than the 2.9 I used to have, so I'm pretty happy with it. Now if my 4.0 sounded like that 2.9, and I've seen some that do, I'd be on it, but for now the injectors are still louder than the lifters.