Hey everyone, new forum member here. I've been lurking as I've needed info on my van but now I'm looking for some opinions specific to my situation. I've got an 07 E350 with the 6.0 in it. Mileage is anywhere from 327k Mi or 414k Mi (I was told 327 when I bought it but saw 414 on the Odo that works intermittently last week). I bought the van as a project early January with an engine code relating to the EGR system. It has been sitting up until last week when I just finished a bunch of work on it. I ended up doing an EGR delete, brand new OEM oil cooler, turbo rebuild, and all the seals, gaskets, and o-rings that I touched were replaced. When I initially purchased the van it ran fine, no noises other than some sticking injector noises. I fired it up last week for the first time after doing all the work and it sounded great. I let it warm up in its parking spot to make sure everything was good. Within maybe 5 minutes of it warming up I started to hear a chirping noise, which i initially thought (or hoped, rather) was something like a belt pulley. However after further online investigation I see lifters are well known to make this noise...and though I may seem naive, I hope that's not the cause of the chirp. I was planning on pulling the belt off and running it without any of the accessories to possibly eliminate those as an issue. I was also planning on checking all exhaust joints that I touched to make sure they weren't leaking. My only issue is I don't want to run it without the water pump spinning. I know it'll take a few minutes to reach operating temperature/ the point the noise starts to kick in. Would I be safe to rely on the temperature guage within the truck to make sure it's not over heating? I'm a little frustrated with the whole situation at the moment as I've spent a fair amount of money on parts and spent a decent amount of time working on it and I haven't even had a chance to use it for the purpose I bought it for. Any input is appreciated. Thanks

 

I have an 06 F350 with 230k miles, and I've noticed the same chirping noise starting after it gets warmed up. I'm not sure how bad it is, or can get if it is a lifter, but I don't like hearing it.

I was like you and thought that it might be the belt, so in an attempt to see if that was the case, I slowly sprayed some water on, and around the belt area. My thinking was that if it was indeed the belt squeaking, the water would change the friction of the belt against the pulleys, and it would either go away or get worse. For me there was no change what so ever, so I'm afraid that it might be a lifter issue for me as well.

I suppose you could run it without a belt for a minute or two, but I wouldn't risk it. Your water temp wouldn't register properly due to the coolant not being circulated in the system. If you still wanted to try without a belt, I would suggest running the truck to normal temp (and when it is making the noise) and then trying to take off the belt quickly (when it isn't running but still hot) and restarting so you aren't running it very long.

good luck

 

I should've mentioned that I did drive the van home one night, about a 30 minute trip on the highway. When I got off the highway the noise seemed to be gone, but came back maybe a minute later when I was sitting at a stop light. Have you noticed any such pattern with your truck? I would run the truck up to temp and then pull the belt however my tensioner broke the other day and it threw the belt (my fault- I wasn't aware of the lock on the tensioner and left a ratchet on it to hold it in place when I started the truck. I believe the ratchet slipped off and the tensioner snapped). So I'm currently without a belt- I was trying to narrow down the chirping noise without having to throw a new tensioner and belt on. But I'll likely end up doing just that.

 

I had the same chirping sound after replacing egr cooler and oil cooler. Turns out it was an exhaust leak. Check all exhaust fittings you touched when you did the work Recheck the up-pipe connection at the turbo and make sure it mates perfectly with the turbo. I also had one where the egr cooler attaches to the up-pipe but you delete yours.

 

That's a good call out - I did just get my replace my EGR and it is possible something got disturbed. I'll need to look closely and see if I can find anything.