sister just bought a truck, when we got it home we fired it up and it has a rather loud tick coming from the engine ( my dad said He thinks it sounds like its coming from engine/trans meet torque converter bolt loose and clapping or something but i personally dont think its that simple.. when accellerating it gets louder aswell as in parked idle, read through the engine forums and saw alot of problem solving for newer f150's , dont even know where to begin with this, cant take it to a garage and get it fixed so it Basically has to be a driveway deal since all her money is going to college, Any ideas on where to start... things i can look at replacing for her that aren't going to break the bank if it turns out not to be the problem

 

If you bought a 97 with a 4.2, you are looking at problems. That year had bad intake manifold gaskets, which led to coolant getting into the cylinders and causing a hydrolock.

 

Make sure that your full of oil. Does the tick follow your RPMs? Could be as simple as low oil, like another has posted, it could be the trailhead of some serious problems.

 

yea she's topped right up on fluids that was the first thing i checked Hoping its not anything too horrible

 

Broken exhaust manifold studs maybe, or it could be the injectors? Try and pinpoint the exact location if you can.

 

Ok so went out today and gave it a quick look before heading out, did the old 2x2 trick and there seems to be 1 bolt on the bellhousing that you can Really hear it from.. (top drivers side of bell housing general location) everywhere else is not nearly as loud as it is there what the heck would do that o.O lol

 

stupid question did you check to see if all the spark plugs are tight

 

Not a stupid question.... and no i havent yet i heard problems with fords spark plugs so i didnt want to mess around with it untill i checked torque converter slap.. but im guessing i should get on checking them

 

I haven't heard of issues with spark plugs loosening and blowing out with the 4.2 - that's an issue the 4.6 and 5.4's with the 4 thread heads has.

 

happens on mine all the time lol but there has been a couple of other in which it has happend to and then they jumped to conclusion and did a set of exhast manifold gaskets

 

I've had spark plugs work themselves loose on my 4.2 a couple of times. One actually shot out and I had to get a helicoil so get the plug to stay in.