It started about 6 months ago as a light knocking coming from the rear of the motor.Possibly driver side(left) rear valve cover, or maybe arround the rear main seal its hard to say.
The knocking has gotten much louder and it sounds like metal squealing lightly and something loose rattling in there.I was thinking maybe has to do with lifters,connecting rod bearing, or flywheel?
I removed the valve cover on left side to take a peak..everything looks ok. I also used a stethoscope to listen but its hard to pinpoint exact location of noise.
I also noticed the 2 transmission nutts on the crossmember were missing and think this may have caused strain on the drivetrain. I am hoping it is a flywheel/flexplate problem and not internal.
Any help and recommendations would be greatly appreciated.
Ty in advance. John B./newbie

 

Welcome to the forum.
The flywheel area sounds like a good place to start. Does it change with RPM? Does it ever quit? Does it change when in and out of gear (other than rpm)?

 

It does it while in gear and neutral.
It makes the noise contsantly non-stop.
Seems like its loudest while de-cellerating, but also does it while acellerating and even during idle.
Its a 98 E-250 van, man they really cram that motor in there.
The sound is the same speed and rhythem of a valve tap but much louder like a thumping or knocking. Collapsed lifter?

 

yeah im having the same problem with a 97 E-250 but it is a 4.2,it does it in gear the loudest when going up hills at low speeds like around 25 mph,it is not as bad at idle,but it is there.sounds like its coming from the rear of engine area.sorry i couldnt help.

 

[B] exactly RH, at low speeds up hills is also most knock.Well i took mine off the raod and am affraid to drive it.I found some metal chips in the oil and am having a hell of a time getting the oil pan off to take a peak. You have to remove a bunch of stuff from top of motor then raise the motor to remove pan. Sheesh, could they make it any more difficult?

 

Response to previous thread "loud knocking/banging in 5.4". RH I finally got the danm oil pan off to inspect the connecting rod bearings.Sure enough the furthest back toward the tranny was totally shot. It appears that the bearing journals on the cap and rod are spent and the crank may need to be machined.
If my previous post seems to be the same problem you are having I would suggest you remove the oil pan and check the rod bearings by wiggling the rods and checking for play. You may be able to replace just the bearings before it gets too bad.The bearings can be replaced without removing the motor.Hardest part for me was removing the oil pan.Bearing replacement is simple.
In my case I left it go too long and the crank and bearing journals became too worne.
Good luck with yours,I may attempt to fine sand the crank and bearing journals and throw some bearings in then hope it lasts another 6 months to a year. It isn't worth it for me to remove the motor and open up that big *** can of worms.Might just buy another van and use this for parts.

 

Thanks for the information I'm sorry to hear that is the problem. Yeah I bet that oil pan was rough to get off especially on a 5.4. I'm going to pull it off and do what you said but I had tried pulling that oil pan off before it didn't work maybe this time I can get it. I also have the whole top end of the motor down to the block because of leaking head gaskets Im still trying to figure out what caused the gasket problem. If it gets to major of a problem I'll probably end up buying another van or go with a Ford Reman Engine. But I would like to get away from these 4.2's because they are nothing but problems. I would like to get as many miles as possible out of this motor if I could, but who knows.

 

Being that you already have the top end of the motor off(asswuming motor is still in vehicle), it will be much easier to remove the pan. Half the problem of removing the pan was to remove a bunch of stuff from the top end so I could jack up the motor to remove the pan.If you jack it and still have trouble removing it, it is most likely the oil pick-up that is holding you up. If so try to remove it.
Hope it all works out for ya. I've decided to just buy another and use this van for parts.