Someone please help me understand. First, I am not a dummy when it comes to engines. I have a 2000 F150 with a 5.4 and auto with 61K miles on it. Lately, within the last few hundreds of miles, I have noticed a nasty pecking noise from the right bank of the motor. I know it's and over head cam motor, but it sounds like it has about 3-4 lifters that are tapping. This occurs after the truck has been running and I shut it off and then restart it about 10 minutes to several hours later. It pecks for about 30 seconds and then goes away. Just like if you had lifters that were bleeding off and then pumping back up. It makes me think I was driving a diesel sometimes. It can't be good for the engine and I am going to have it fixed under my extended warranty, but I want to understand what is going on and will it come back to haunt me again!!

 

All the sources I have seen (on this site and others) lead me to believe that your problem is common and harmless....piston slap. I have the same problem. I have seen several remedies discussed from replacing an engine to turning up the volume on the radio

I spoke to a guy today who also has the same trouble in his 98 and he has 120K miles. All he's ever done is routine maintenance...no problems caused by piston slap at all.

You can do a forum search here for "piston slap" or "ping" or "knock" and get several discussions or look on the far right-hand side of the home page toward the bottom for a very extensive and insightful article regarding the issue. Or, if it botheres you enough or you feel it is a bigger problem, just take it to a Ford dealer....they SHOULD know about the problem.

Hope this helps,

Jason