1. Has anyone else worked on it recently?
2. Is there a chance of someone doing a bit of sabotage?

The only way something could get in the combustion chamber to make such a recket would be if the top end was off in the past and something was dropped into the plenum or intake port by mistake or on purpose. An accident was probably over looked by the previous mechanic or just considered as if nothing would happen, and then it did. I don't think a piece of the hard plastic gasket could cause the noise so the next step, to me, would be to find a borescope that would fit through the plug hole and that is pretty small. Or pull the heads, after you eliminate everything else. I'm sure you know that piston slap has a much more hollow sound than what you have there.
Anyway, back to the borescope, the only place that I know of that has them at a reasonable price is Home Depot. I don't think it will fit through the plug hole though. If you are on REAL good terms with a Urologist you might be able to borrow his. That would be the right size as they use them to check the urinary tract and prostate for blockage and kidney stones. Don't ask how I know! Also a gunsmith that does a lot of custom rifle work might have one.

 

Ok,then pull the serp belt and see if it's an accessory.
JL

 

LOL.

No one has worked on it. I bought it with 72k miles 3yrs ago from the original owner. Her and her husband only used it to tow their travel trailer. It now has 105k miles and has only had the fluids changed, new tires put on (the old ones were "eggy" from sitting so much), and I had to weld the heat shield on the funky y-pipe. I believe that's why we got such a good deal on it, I think we paid right at $8k because of the racket the exhaust shield made, people thought something was wrong with it, but the day I checked it out, I went under and pushed on the shield in and had my wife start the truck, we went inside and struck a deal.

I cannot afford a new, or used, engine right now, otherwise I would pull this one and put a JY motor in and go through this one properly. We have been hit with a streak of bad luck lately with the wife getting laid off, and me carrying my shop, construction company and working part time at a machine shop. It's tough for her to keep borrowing her sick mother's PT Cruiser to tote out 4 kids around, and if we go anywhere as a family, we have to take my daily and the PT

 

I'll try that, but also tried the stethoscope on the alternator and water pump and they were both quiet. Also pried on the pulleys to see if any had excessive end play.





Thanks for all the help so far everyone, we'll get this thing tackled...

 

Noise didn't leave with the belt off. but I started compression tests and found #2 has only 90psi

I hope it's a valve spring(s) and not a dropped valve/ a spring might be able to be replaced with the motor in and head on, but it's still not easy...

Going to re-test #2 after testing the rest.

 

Yup #2. All the others are between 120 and 150 engine cold.

I took the compression tester off while the engine was running and OMG! Definitely where the noise is coming from...

Will update when the valve cover is pulled. This one will take a little longer since it has all the harness and lines in the way etc.

 

Oh-you didn't pull that cam cover already-I misunderstood,and thought you did a visual on both sides.
It could very well be a broken valvepsring, bad lash adjuster, or a bad follower.
JL

 

I think Ford intended for us NOT to be able to work on this engine while in the vehicle. There's nothing that will reach the center bottom cover bolt, the a/c is in the way

 

That's the fun engineers have with mechanics. See how hard it can be to remove a bolt by blocking access to it.

 

Broken intake valve spring on #2

At first I thought the follower may have popped off as it was laying in the head, but after looking closer, the spring is broken - that's what the noise was, as the piston was coming up, it was banging the valve off the seat.

Does anyone know how interference this motor is? I'm hoping there wasn't piston damage, but if it's a little dented, the motor will live for a while.

Next id the fun part of getting new spring on without pulling the head, and as you know, this isn't a typiacl pushrod motor where we can just use a standard on-head spruing compressor, looks like I will have to invent some kind of tool to get in there and still allow me to get the locks back on after fulling the chamber with air...


Thanks for all the help everyone, I will post after the new spring comes in and I can get this sucker running again

 

It's good to hear that you have tracked the noise down. Have you tried putting air to that cylinder yet? If you have and it holds the valve up without leaking you should be able to replace the spring in the vehicle. Ford has a tool for that operation. Just be certain that there is no leakage at the valve and seat. If there is no leakage you need to go buy some lotto tickets as you are very lucky. The angle of the valve to piston is not very great so you could have a repairable situation. Try the air and get back to us.

 

I just checked my Ford manual and it indicates that the head has to be removed for this repair. I tried to scan the section to send to you but the graphics don't show, only the text. If you want I'll send you that info or maybe someone with more computer skill than I will post the info. I would still try the air test first.

 

I take repair manuals with a grain of salt, except when it comes to torque specifications. I have a Ford Truck repair manual and AllData, I appreciate the efforts to get the info to me.

According to ford, you can;t change the bearings with the motor in, yet I did, GM manuals tell me I have to pull a motor to change a cam, and I rarely do, Kawasaki says you can't change shift forks in an ES500 motor without splitting the case etc etc.

I will take pics of whatever tool I invent, but I believe I can get it replaced while in the vehicle and head installed, just going to take a little patience and ingenuity.

 

I agree that manuals are only helpful up to a point and an invenful person can find ways to do the job easier or faster than the engineers that design some of the stuff we choose to work on. When I was turning wrenches for a living it was always nice to beat the clock by using the shortcuts learned through experience.

Does air pressure hold your valve up without too much leakage?

 

Sounds like you might be open to some "okie tech".

Manually hold valve seated, remove spark plug, set piston about halfway up on the compression stroke, and feed a long piece of rope through the plug hole. Leave the tail out, obviously. SLOWLY turn crank until it compresses the rope in the combustion chamber enough to hold valve firmly seated. Now press retainer and spring down and insert keepers. A couple extra hands and creative manipulation of pry bars can be handy here...