On my 02 4.6L vin 6 (Windsor):

Noticed last week a ticking that suddenly got noticeably louder. Went through all the thoughts: bad COP, loose plug, loose lash adjusters, etc. Decided to pull the COP and plug and see if anything there was not quite right.

First thing, since I don't have a mechanic's stethoscope, I pulled some of dad's old Mickey Mouse U touches and grabbed a telescoping magnet- like for reaching dropped nuts and bolts. With my thumb over the end in my ear, I started touching COPS. Sure enough, #4 was ticking like a....I don't what- some kind of annoyingly "ticky" thing. Yay- the hardest one to get to.

Lo and behold, as I was fishing out extensions and joints to get on my socket, as soon as I had that socket down in the hole with enough extension to grab, I turned it and that durn plug was not even finger tight! How was it staying in? Anyway, seeing how somehow I missed torquing it properly last time, I got that thing out, looked it over, cleaned it and stuck it back in. Got it finger tight and hit it with WD-40 as I had no dielectric grease and now no way to get to the local auto parts store.

8 total pieces of extensions and joints later, I re-torqued that thing to 28#- made sure of it this time, and fired it up.

Roar and bingo. Done. Purring like a kitten after about 1 hour out of my life and who knows how much $ saved.

Moral....I don't know. It seemed the make-shift stethoscope was invaluable here. Been scouring threads all week for ideas and clues to diagnose and figured I would throw my own spin on the problem.

Life is good again, pulse returns to normal, and God is good.

 

Nice job, Now just pray the threads in the head weren't damaged or weakened by the loose plug.

-Steve

 

glad ya found it....

 

Shhhh! Don't say that out loud!