But...did it fix the buzzing?

Edit..I see the rest of your post now. Glad you figured it out.

And now you know how to take your valve covers off!

 

good deal Brian. glad you got it fixed, first time its a PITA to get it all apart, next time you will get it done in 3h ..... no beer brakes LOL.... and busted knuckles and scrapes thats you reward for a good job hahaha....

 

Glad that fixed your buzzing. Looks like I need to do this as well, among other things.

 

Before I get the "this is an old thread" harassment...I know (I started it).

It's been almost 6 years since I had this issue. Towards the end of last year it was moving up my list as it was becoming noticeable. It turned into a chatter last week which concerned me. After doing some research I thought that maybe I had hit 80 in-lbs and was plummeting towards 60 in-lbs and some new injector cups. I still have the original sticks and would rather wait to replace the cups until I replace the sticks as well.

Took the day and dove in. I was surprised on two fronts: none of the hold down bolts were below 100 in-lbs and all of the them were loose. I checked the torques in 20 in-lb increments starting at 60 in-lbs. At 60, 80, and 100 in-lbs none of the bolts moved. When I did the check at 120 in-lbs all 8 bolts moved (anywhere from 1/8 to 1/4 turn). This check was done cold. I warmed the engine up to 160F (didn't have the time to go the last 20F) and checked again. All 8 bolts moved again (about 1/8 turn or so) during the "hot torque".

One note of caution: be very careful with the oil dipstick tube support. I don't know what I did this time but it is VERY difficult to get my dipstick in and out now. I haven't decided if it's worth trying to bend it back (does anybody have a picture of how the tube bends are supposed to look?) or buy another one.

 

Pardon my naivete, but a bolt holding on a dressing cover, sounds like you have to bolt on your skivvies. Mine work with elastic.
What is a "dressing cover"?

 

This post is evidence that my injector torque problem is nothing new - but it's coming to the forefront as more and more people are finding the need to pop VCs and to replace injectors for the first time.

I have something to add here: I just had to dive in for a failed cup after #5 worked loose on my vacation a couple of months ago (cup is drying as I write this). I've been "living with" fuel in coolant for a couple of months because of the inability to get right on this. I'm pretty sure I toasted #5 with coolant reaching it - this can happen when you shut off a warm engine, fuel pressure drops, but coolant pressure is still high. Coolant pressure also builds when the engine heater is plugged in. The only possible answers are do the cup quick, pop the degas cap every time you shut down, or swap out that injector with the 9th one I keep in inventory. Yes... my luck is so bad that I have to keep a #9 in inventory.

You are not being paranoid - the injectors can work loose over time and miles, they can damage a cup when they do, and they do make more noise when loose. I suspect this has been an element in cackle since shortly after they rolled off the assembly line.

 

That's the pretty black plastic piece on top on the HPOP that you have to take of just about any time you want to do anything besides check your oil. The first time I took it off many years ago one of the crown nuts broke off (actually the stud did since it was so rusted) so I never put it back on.

I can't complain. Just about 6 years and 101K miles and they were still above 100 in-lbs. With the chatter I had I was sure I was less than 80 in-lbs and had some blue Loctite in a holster ready to go. I'm not sure if the 120 in-lbs is based off of cold iron (like tire pressure) or if hot torqueing is warranted but the difference is night and day between the sound. Between both torque sessions (cold and hot) I got about 1/4 to 1/2 turn on all 8 bolts. Doesn't seem like much but I didn't realize how much rattle and noise there was until I drove it to work this morning. It's still loud and, to the untrained ear, just a bunch of noise. To me, though, it's much smoother and almost pure cackle again.


Now all I need to do is find the buzz that's plaguing me (6 years now). It seems to resonate like a hollow vibration. If you were to slightly loosen the "Powerstroke" engine cover until the plastic vibrated, it sounds like that. Unfortunately I don't have that cover installed so it's not the problem. It seems to oscillate at idle (comes and goes like it's pulsing) and, if I had to guess, is a little louder on the passenger side and towards the front (there's so much noise going on that it can be heard everywhere).

 

Brian, have you looked at your down pipe where it goes behind the engine by the firewall?

 

I have (one of my first thoughts). She's a tight fit but makes it through. It does push on the plastic shield as it passes by the transmission. I do have a drone that I think is because the exhaust has shifted and the clamp is starting to rub the return line (again) but I've only had the exhaust for a few months and the buzz for years.

 

Vacuum leaking? Do the floor vents work?

 

Heat shield or inner fender skirt loose?

 

I chased this rabbit for hours and even tried driving a solid brass rod through my dipstick tube last January (2015) when I was doing lots of other work. No go. Bite the bullet and get another dipstick tube. Take some measurements first, though, in relation to how far the dipstick goes into the existing tube. The new one might be slightly different in length.

 

Man have I spent my share of time down THAT rabbit hole! Max A/C valve connection (my '03 had one from the factory, albeit pretty weak) and multiple ESOF issues. I've since capped off the solenoid from the hubs and gone the Dynatrac free-spin route. I was tentative about the Buck$Zooka. It's the single biggest trigger pull I've done on the truck but for me it was worth it. It solved 90% of the front end issues that I've been battling for the last 5 years.

Sorry for the rant. No vacuum leak. Floor vents work. Defrost is only when I select it.

Both are still good. There's are a lot of sounds going on when the engine is running ('noise' to the untrained ear) but as I walk around it seems to be loudest passenger side forward. If I had my dressing cover on top of the engine I would swear that it was loose and vibrating. This and my front end pop/clunk seem to be my Moby Dick. Checked or replaced most of the common culprits and nothing seems to be out of place or noticeably deteriorated. I would love to finally stumble across the problem but I'm to the point where I'd (almost) welcome a failure so I can find it and fix it.

Did a search yesterday (I know...novel concept) and it looks like my tube is twisted about 45 degrees. I'm going to dive into it in the next couple of days (or the next time I check oil level) and see if I can get it straightened out. At least the passenger CAC tube is the easier one to get in/out (there's no room to maneuver if I don't remove it). I thought about just replacing it but reading about the nut (apparently it's internal to the pan) does not motivate me to risk having to pull the engine to get into the pan and retrieve it if I drop it. I don't know if my grommet needs to be replaced but it's been there for 13 1/2 years and I don't have a lot of confidence that if I pull the tube out and put a new one in that it will seal very well.

 

If you don't loosen the outer ring, which you do not need to do to just replace the tube, there is no risk of losing the holder into the oil pan. I just did mine last January and it was rock solid (and my truck is also 13-1/2 years old and has 280K miles on it). I even loosened the external nut first (before researching the effort thoroughly), and then discovered that the nut did not even need to be touched at all.

Replacing the tube was very easy. Believe me, I was equally concerned before digging into doing this replacement effort. Like I said, though, you don't even need to fool with the external tightening nut on the holder. All that is required is to simply pull out the existing tube and push in the new one. The tube is only held in place with an o-ring on the tube where it inserts into the holder at the pan.

As long as the metal around your nut is excessively corroded and the external nut is snug, you should have absolutely no issue at all with removing the old tube and inserting the new one. Believe me, it's a whole lot easier than fooling with trying to straighten the tube while it is in the truck, and my guess is that every effort you make is going to make the situation worse. I even tried for hours to straighten the tube with it OUT of the truck... no go... Then again, it costs you nothing to try to straighten it. I'm just trying to say that your worry about dropping the holder into the tank is not valid (again, though, assuming that the pan material around the holder is in decent shape with no serious corrosion).

The only times when people are risking dropping the holder into the pan is when they are trying to reseal the holder's tightening nut on the external surface of the oil pan, and you're not going that far at all.

 

So all I have to do is unbolt the support on the valve cover then reach under and give a good tug and the tube comes out? Do I need to drain some oil or is the opening high enough that the engine won't drool all over the driveway?


Thanks for calming my fears. Reps sent.