Hey all

My wife and I are from Switzerland and bought our Ford F350 in the States. Now we are traveling with it through Nord-/Central-and Southamerica. Now my question: We have a weird noise coming from the engine room. Hard to define what noise it is. Kind of rattling/ticking noise? I couldn't upload the audio file here, so I created a Youtube video with it for you to listen to it.

The interesting thing is that the noise only appears in the two highest gears. And only when the engine has to work hard. So if drive like 50 MPH and drive a little bit uphill or against strong winds it appears.
If I let go from the gas it disappears straight away.
Moreover it is to say that it only happens when the engine is really hot after one hours of driving or so.

Interesting is also that after a service (oil, oil filter, air filter, gas filter) the noise was gone for the first 700 miles.

Except from the noise the car has not any issues... We also checked the oil pressure and it was okay. As we are currently traveling its hard to find a mechanic who can really help
Maybe somebody of you knows the noise which you can listen to under the youtube link. The audio file was recorded from inside the car while driving.


Thanks already for your help

 

Year manufactured and engine?

 

It is a 6.8 V10 form 2000 (Gasoline)

 

I can't tell anything from the audio, it's hard enough in person to diagnose. I'll take some guesses seeing how it's a gas engine. A load on a gas engine with poor quality fuel will create a spark knock/detonation. I have no clue what the fuel specs are where you are but that might be a consideration. Is the check engine light on or any other lights on the dash? I'm of course assuming you have checked all of the fluids and have watched the gauges and don't show anything obvious like overheating or low oil pressure.

 

Could very well be roller rocker (camshaft). This could be very serious from the aspect that the roller bearing is starting to fail and it will damage the camshaft. In person, you should be able to tell what side of the engine it is coming from, then pull the valve cover to inspect. The repair is simple if caught before major damage occurs

 

Thank you for your thoughts and inputs!

We check all fluids regularly as we drive a lot of miles. We just changed oil, oil filter, gasoline filter, Airfilter 1000 Miles ago. On this occation we also checked oilpressure in hot and cold, it was very good.
We have no check engine light on and no codes shown with our Scanner.

I think the Gasoline in Chile and Argentina is not too bad. We get 95 and 93 and only on big gas stations.

Did you had a look at the noise? Maybe we can upload also a video when it sound normal in the same gear to compare.

 

The video is hard to tell much of anything. Some common V10 things are broken exhaust studs which can cause ticking kinds of noises especially when the engine is worked harder. The "tick" can also be louder on cold starts and once hot as things expand it quiets down a bit. The V10 engines are known to blow spark plugs out of the heads as well. Im told a ticking noise can be detected when they, or one starts to come loose before it comes out. My V10 already had the blow out fixed before I bought it. Might pop the hood and see if you can pinpoint the noise a bit to one side or the other.

 

Thank you so much for this input. How could I tell if a camshaft is broken?

As the noise is only appearing after at least one hour of driving and when we drive uphill or against strong winds in the highest and second highest gear. Therefore it is quite difficult so find out from where the noise is coming from.

 

What I hear in the video sounds like spark knock. Any idea the age/condition of the spark plugs?

 

We replaced the sparkplugs 8'000 Miles ago (all 10 of them!! haha....) But you are right, I am guessing as well that the sound comes from the burning process. But as the noise only occures when we drive, we can't listen from the front and locate it properly.

 

Are you certain that the plugs that were used to replace were of the same heat range as the OEM plugs? If they are a hotter plug it is possible they are causing detonation.

 

We used Champion Double Platinum Spark Plugs 7963. According to rockauto they fit our car and I assume they have the same heat range as the OEM plugs? But I am happy to be corrected if this is the issue.

 

I imagine they are fine. Maybe check and make sure one hasn’t backed out? A loose plug would make some noise.

 

Thank you so much for the hint. I will have a look at this.

 

AGREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!