Metallic Tick\Knock On Drivers Side Valve Cover 4.6

[sharonis3]

I have an very strong tick that seems to be coming from the drivers side valve cover..... @ idle it is very quiet or silent....but as the engine speeds up some - it I very clear between 1,000 and 1,500 RPM - then it fades away above this.

Does not make the tick - when the engine is started cold, but in a couple of minutes of running - it starts to Tick\Knock, as it warms up. When it first started making a noise - it was very loud, I thought it was a crank knock and the engine was toast. So I put a real oil guage on to check, and pressure was 80 cold and above 40 PSI when warm. I put some Hydraulic Lifter cleaner in and this reduced it from a horrible KNOCK.... to a Tick\Minor Knock.......So I figured that it was a lifter that became unstuck, but maybe still a little stuck. I was busy - So I drove it like this for 7 months.............

Last week - I then popped the drivers side valve cover to look for the TICK problem - while I had the valve cover off - I looked down at the timing chain also, as I knew that I should probably replace the timing chain and guides............and found that the chain had completely eaten thru the plastic on the top of the guide and also eaten thru the metal backing. It had eaten the end of guide right off, all the way back to the tensioner..... and the chain had started to gnaw off the end of the tensioner piston. So my concern shifted to replacing the timing chain parts, before the engine blew up...... So I put in new chains, guides, tensioners..... (Cloyes Timing Chain Kit) - but I knew this was not the source of the tick.....

I thought the tick might have been a stuck Hydraulic Lash Adjuster - So while I had it open - I also replaced all 8 Hydraulic Lash adjusters on the drivers side....(used Ford Adjusters)

Started up the explorer - timing chain job went well...but Replacing the lifters did not get rid of the Tick, Tick or Knock Knock noise.... came back as soon as it started to warm up - It is a very metallic sound...

What else could it be.... ? Puzzled.... Help ??????

2002 - 4.6 - 120,000 miles - 5W20 and Always a Ford Oil Filter......

 

[07gtman]

listen by the flywheel could be a loose flex plate bolt ...are you sure its on top ..i had 3 flex plate bolts loosen up and was loosing my mind trying to figure it out. the ticking sound sounded a bit deeper then a lifter and not deep enough for a rod bearing..i put a long screw driver on the bell housing while it was running and the other end to my ear and sure enough thats where it was coming from

 

[sharonis3]

Will check for loose flex plate bolts. Assuming (and hoping) that you only had the outer bolts loose - not the inner ones that bolt to the crank? So that you just tightened from the access hole, and that you did not have to remove the transmission and torque converter

 

[07gtman]

had to remove my starter to get to them