I was out of state attending a reunion. After driving 20 minutes, I start to hear an unusual LOUD tapping noise. I pull over and hear a distinct tapping noise from the top of the engine. It was very loud and increased with rpm's. Did I say it was loud?!

I turned the truck off and went to the reunion. Upon returning, I start the truck and no noise. Drove back to the inlaws and experienced no problems. No lights ever came on.

Following day, I'm heading home and 20 minutes into the ride I hear the loud tapping sound come back. I quickly pull over, turn off the truck and restart it. No sound. I returned the truck to my in-laws and had my father-in-law take it to the local Ford shop he works as a porter at.

I wrote out a lengthy description of the problem and that I thought it had to be computer related because something "resets".

I received a call from the shop this afternoon. The SA said they could not recreate the problem. They checked it on the computer and no error codes were recorded. He said he's going to have one of the mechanics drive it home for the day to get some time on it to see if the problem comes back.

Any ideas? I'm afraid that I'll be tooling down the highway and throw a rod or something major. I've searched here and can't come up with any ideas.

The service advisor did ask when the oil was changed last because it has an orange tint to it. My '04 screw has 6600 miles and I changed the oil with Motorcraft 5w-20 at 5,900 miles. I don't think that would be the problem since the noise stops after the truck is turned of and restarted with no cool down time. It's the 5.4
I will call tomorrow and am hoping it did it for the mechanic.