I am the new owner of a 98 4.6 liter for about 2 months now,after some reading i now believe it has the common head gasket allowing coolant into cylinder ! once before when trying to start it acted like it was having a hard time turning over so i bumped the key a couple times and it started up ! Today it happened again but the engine was to a point where it couldn't turn anymore ! after it set a while with no change i turned the balancer manually the opposite direction a couple rotations and then tried it and it started right up but with a rather loud tapping noise ! i went to engine bay it it seemed to be coming from passenger side valve cover ! i read something about a roller follower finger could cause this so i removed cover hoping for a obvious MINOR problem but i see nothing that looks unusual to me ! but this is my first time seeing much of this engine ! any help or ideas ? anyone please ! I have no trouble codes and seems to run smooth but doesn't sound good so i have not driven it any !

 

Are you losing coolant, getting white smoke out tailpipe, pressurizing your cooling system when the engine does run, temp gauge spiking to hot and then back down to normal. Any of these could indicate coolant entering a combustion chamber or combustion gases entering your cooling system. When the cam cover was off did you try to manually move the finger followers one at a time by rocking them using your fingers? If you hydrolock because of liquid entering the combustion chamber of one or more cyls it can bend a rod and that will generate a rod knock depending on the severity of the bend in the rod, very severe and the engine will lockup a mild bend and you get a knock. So I would remove the sparkplugs on the passenger side (#1 bank) and check them for coolant and fuel. If one cyl is getting coolant then the plug should show some indication. Another test would be a hydrocarbon test of your engine coolant performed by a mechanic or by yourself using a kit that some auto parts stores carry. Hydrocarbons in the coolant will indicate that a head gasket is leaking and allowing hydrocarbons from the combustion chamber into the cooling system. Of course it may be some other issue and not a gasket leaking. good luck

 

thank you for the reply ! i did not have any smoking or temperature problems but the coolant had the strange smell to it ! as far as pressure i didn't think it was more than usual although it would have pressure even after setting for 24 hours or more,didn't know if that was normal for this engine? Coolant loss was not very much at all,not enough to cause concern,i did suspect a more than normal amount of moisture coming from exhaust is why i suspected a slight head gasket problem along with the coolant smell even after changing coolant it came back, The finger followers are similar to rocker arm right ? they seem normal (but i have no idea of normal on this engine !) I will confess i was previously allergic to Fords,but a company work truck(04 f150 with a 5.4 ) having over 500,000 miles after being practically molested and overloaded on a daily basis with very little maintenance and attention other than regular oil changes and brake pad changes from stopping waaay more weight than the truck is rated for on a daily basis had made me have a different opinion of ford trucks ! But i'm very new to these modular engines and their inner workings so any help is greatly appreciated ! The engine seems to be running smooth other than the tapping noise ! i read something about the lifter like thing could be nearly collapsed causing this sound ,any truth to that or way to diagnose it ? thank you in advance and anyone else on here that will help guide me ! i NEED all i can get !

 

Yes the finger followers ride on top of the valve stem tip on one end and the other end rides on the lash adjuster. If a lash adjuster is failing it will collapse or go soft and allow the finger follower to flop around and generate a ticking tapping noise. The follower can also fall off if the lash adjuster completely collapses. When you check for this soft condition you place a finger on each follower and check for any rocking or looseness of the follower. (perform this while the engine is not running)) A very slight movement is normal but if the follower can be rocked, moved easily then the lash adjuster is bad. I would have the coolant checked for hydrocarbons as that is a reliable indicator of a blown head gasket allowing gases into your cooling system. Also if you determine you have hydrocarbons along with a knock then get a compression test performed on that bank of cyls. A low compression on any cyl in this case will usually indicate that you have a partially bent rod caused by a hydrolock condition at some time and that of course will have to be replaced. Try and locate the source of the noise as there are other components that can generate a knock such as a collapsed chain tensioner, any of the FEAD components (if removing the serp belt stops the noise then suspect one of the FEAD components, alternator, belt tensioner, p/s etc) a bad belt tensioner can make this noise as well and other things of course... Good luck.

 

Thanks for the info ! There's no loose movement in any of my finger followers,but i do have 1 cylinder with less compression than the other 3 on that bank ! Does this definitely mean a bent rod for sure ? That's what i was hoping to NOT be the case ! The thing is the engine is still running smoothly it just has the horrible knock or tapping sound ! I was hoping to get atleast another month or 2 out of it (bad time of the year for engine replacement) I'm sure it would probably be a bad idea to drive it with this knocking noise ? Probably just a hand grenade at this point ??? Thanks again for the insight !

 

How much lower is the compression in the one cyl?

 

It was about 30 psi less ! i've accepted the fact that it's a bent rod ! I got a good replacement engine,it's out of a 98 mustang ! i already expected to change intakes but it looks as if i need another flexplate as well ! I noticed the mustang crankshaft has only 6 bolt holes and i expect mine to have 8 ! Are there anymore things that i will run into when replacing a windsor with a romeo engine ? Thanks in advance for any help/advice !

 

Yep Windsors are 8 bolt cranks and Romeo 6 bolt and the cam covers are not interchangable either. Swap Oil pan, exhaust manifolds, oil filter adapter, Use the truck coolant outlet gooseneck on the truck intake as well. Cars have smaller diameter goosenecks. Its a pretty clean swap. Good luck.