My Explorer ticks whenever I give it gas. It use to only happen with I was going uphill, but lately it's just whenever I give it gas. When I get past a certain speed, say 50mph, you don't hear it as much. If I'm on a pretty big incline it almost sounds like a chain sound *eek*. Any ideas what this might be?

I was just told that I needed my drive belt replaced....would this cause the noise?

Thanks fellas....

 

Drive belt? Never heard of a drive belt on these engines. If he's referring to a timing belt, these engines use a timing chain that almost always outlasts the rest of the engine.

1st thing to do is to better identify the tick. These engines are known for lifters tapping, which is most noticeable at idle and/or at startup. Sometimes they need new lifters, some don't have adequate oil pressure, and other engines it seems just tap and tap forever.
It seems that Ford's fuel injectors tend to be noisy. If the ticking is from the fuel injectors, this is a normal part of their operation.
These engines are also known to ping. Pinging usually occurs most noticeably under load on the highway (say climbing hills or passing). Engine ping is usually cured by a combination of simple procedures such as cleaning the MAF.

Anyway, get us a better feel for what kind of tick you have, and we should be able to help.

 

I agree with mrshorty.

I have a 91 and a 94 and they both have lifter/valve noise. It is usually noticable on start and in colder weather. When the oil gets warm and circulating it settles down. I have 350,000km on my 91 motor and the ticking has been evident for 5 years.

If your oil level is down it will be more noticable and last longer. Oil viscosity can affect the duration and intensity of the tapping.

As mrshorty says more feedback on the sound may help FTE members narrow down a cause.

 

If it only does it going uphill or while accelerating it could be a bad starter motor that's not staying retracted after it does it's job. When it happened on my '92 it was a kind of metallic pinging sound that was inconsistant.

 

I put my money on engine ping from a dirty MAF sensor on this one. Started only once in a while, now all the time, really bad going up hill...

Look under "engine ping" on this web site http://draco.acs.uci.edu/explorer/

 

ulysses - I'm curious about your starter issue. Every once in a while when I start my truck I hear a high pitched metalic screeching. Almust like nails on a chalboard. I was thinking the starter is hung up on the flywheel ring gear and the motor is driving it too fast, then it finally disengages. Does this sound like what your starter was doing? 170K on the starter so I guess I would feel too bad if I had to replace it.

 

Mine was not making that screaching noise you described but I suppose if it was not retracting then the engine would be turning the starter like you said. What I was getting was a "pinging" sound from the starter gear hitting the flywheel. The armature was loose and moving freely in and out. It sounded like (in my mind) an end wrench hanging on a string hitting something metallic that was rotating. Because of the way the starter is positioned on the old Explorers the unretracted gear was only hitting the flywheel when it was going uphill or accellerating. It was difficult to isolate the noise. Sometimes it sounded like it was under the valve covers and sometimes it sounded like it was coming from the timing chain cover. To make it even MORE difficult it occured the same time my timing chain went out which was also rattling AND the engine was pinging going uphill and while accelerating because the timing chain was off by two teeth. I ended up loosening the starter bolts to finger-tight, started the engine, and backed out the starter while the engine was running and the noise disappeared. Then I had to dubious honor of being one of the very, very few to ever have to replace the timing chain on this engine (happened at about 260K miles). This was one of the times when the 'ol "Red X" as we call it almost ended up in the junk yard.

 

No kidding. I never heard of a timing chain issue on the original 4.0. Well OK then, if I get a whim, maybe I'll check out the starter a little more. Something else to put on the list...

 

The rocker arms on the 90-94 4.0L are soft and don't get enough oil. They wear prematurely where they touch the pushrods. There is even a place in Washington State that presses hardened seats in the rockers to reduce wear specifically for these engines. I forgot their name but you can research it and find them on the web.