New to forum

[Ramsey89]

Well am new to the SUV world sort of... Had a '98 explorer when first could drive... totaled it. Well long story short I now own a 2000 XLT. with 163,x.. original miles. have had it since august and have had no issues with it since. was formerly used as a mail route vehicle. Owner and owners son (good friends) took great care of it. Well here recently I changed that oil as routine maintenance, and two days later starts knocking.... but only knocks when motor is up to full temp. From earlier vehicles I have owned when a bearing goes and a rod starts knocking oil pressure goes with them... now I don't know if the stock oil pressure gauges on here are junk or not, but I've had no oil pressure loss at all, according to the stock gauge. I'm afraid to keep driving it but it's my only vehicle at the moment and I have two jobs luckily its a short drive and I can drive it to work before she gets to full temp. Now I know it's dumb to keep driving with the noise, but I keep driving to minimum and try to walk most places since weather is nice. I'd like to keep the vehicle running and get it fixed asap. For it's a great team hauling vehicle (paintball team) and plus it'll make a decent family vehicle for I'm getting married soon too...

So to important part- the questions:
Specs: that i know, its a V6 2000 XLT, 4.0 SOHC

Are the different year motors swappable?
What models/makes do I need to search for, to help shorten searching time or if I decide to go to auto parts store? (i.e.- does same motor come in the XL as XLT?)
I've found a couple folks locally parting out motors from the 95-01 range.
Would it be best route to swap whole motor or just take the parted explorer engines apart and just swap over the rod and crank and put in new bearings? (I'm assuming the crank is taking damage as well, I know rod/piston assembly will need replaced.)

Thank you for the future warm welcomes and will try to update as issues are resolved/pop up.

 

[lynchy wa]

G'day and welcome, weird it should start doing that after an oil change. I wondered if a thicker oil might stop the knock? What oil did you replace it with?

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! Check the Explorer specs page. The link is on the main forum page.

 

[Ramsey89]

switched from 10w-30, to 5w-30. I may go back to 10w-30 and see if it reduces/eliminated knocking.

 

[1Aauto]

welcome to the site

 

[Ramsey89]

Thanks for the welcomes.
Well update: turns out its not a rod (praises)
it was in the valve train, some sludge must have built up. I drained out about 3/4 qt of oil and put in some ATF. Drove it around a couple days and noise is eliminated.

figured I would update, cause I hate searchin' the forums and seeing when people have issues, then getting solutions then never updating. So that was my issue, built up sludge in valve train.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Thanks for the update!