I made a previous post concerning this,and was in error...the problem was not the torque converter,but the flywheel was cracked.My apologies for this..it happened so long ago,im thinking senility has set in...at any rate,there was indeed a crack in the flywheel through two of the torque converter attaching bolts.It wasnt all the way through,but made the nosie,and if it had have been left alone for too long,it would have been a REAL problem.Again...my apologies

 

Hey guys. The truck we all have is guilty of faulty exhaust manifold bolts. They have a habit of breaking and loosening badly. Check them out and replace them if you can get them out. It will create alot of ticking noise for sure if only 1 is loose.

 

Check for loose plugs. My #3 ate my block and had to do a stupid helicoil(sad face) make sure they are all tight.

 

I have a 2003 f-150 5.4 and it does the exact same thing and i've heard from everyone it is infact the manifold bolts the will actually rust off in the head and let the manifold pull up and will give ya the "ticking" sound everybody hears

 

Mine does it too and I replaced the maniflods with headers. Still does it. Tred seafoam as well. Nothing works. It drives me insane.,

 

I removed the wheel so I could access the passenger side exhaust manifold. I had no problem reaching the upper nuts, but I could only easily reach the 2 lower nuts towards the firewall. I tried to tighten them, but they didn't budge. So I loosened them and then re-tightened them. I still have the ticking sound. I stuck my head in the wheel well and the tick was not very noticeable. But get in the driver seat, roll down the passenger window and hit the gas.... viola tick tick tick tick <shrug>

 

I had the same experience as Johnny. Had broken studs and came up on a pair of brand new headers. Put headers in with ford racing locking header bolts after fixing the broken stud problem. Still have the same tick. That damn tick is embarrassing

 

glad you posted that....maybe i won't be in such a hurry to drop $1k+ for labor and parts to put new headers on.

 

I did the install myself. It didn't take 500 bucks worth of labor imo. Went to a local muffler shop and they said the tick isn't exhaust

 

Couldn't this be the old injector tick that seems to be so common?

 

I've thought about that. My truck has about 200,000 miles so I was thinking about replacing the injectors among other things

 

I had the same issue. My engine has around 90,000 on it. I replaced the coils on mine and the tick is gone. I was able to get a great deal on all eight coils through Amazon. I only spent a little over $50 with shipping and about 2 1/2 hours labor (needed to replace a couple connectors that were shot as well). Happy with the results and no longer have engine codes.

 

New here guys and I know this topic has been worn out from all the research I have done. My 2003 5.4 is going into the shop Friday for this ticking noise. Truck runs awesome and has 90k on it. I bought it from the original owner who is an older man. Truck was well maintained since bought new. Any how the noise I have traced down to the lower passenger side of the engine area. You can hear it really good in the passenger finder well and under the front passenger door area. Lifters, valves, main bearings are all good. Makes no sense.

 

$20 says it is the manifold leaking.

 

I would bet it is an exhaust manifold leak.