I have a 2000 4X4 w/4.6l @ 99K miles. This has happened to me twice now. The first time was about 18 months ago. The second time was Tuesday. Driving home from work, about a 45 mile trip, and the Engine just starts ticking and clattering. No noticeable performance loss or engine miss. The first time this happened I drove straight to Autozone and bought oil, filter, and some gunk motor flush. I know I'll get slammed for using the flush stuff, but I knew from past experience,(with 350 chevy's), that it was lifter noise. I was sure it was a stuck lifter. I poured the flush in, (smells like kerosene to me?), ran it for 5min and changed the oil. I know you really cant fix stuff with a can, but it worked and I had only a faint ticking that went away after about 100 miles. Keep in mind this was the first time it happened. Over a year and a half ago.
Tuesday, it happened again. I went through the same procedure, but no luck.
I wish you guys could have heard this thing running in my shop! It was downright scary! I seriously thought it was gonna blow! The noise was so loud, it seemed to be coming from everywhere in the engine.
I started listening to the engine with a broomstick to my ear and determined that it wasnt the crankcase.(Thank God!!) It was coming from the drivers side valvetrain.
I pulled the valve cover on that side, started the truck with the cover off, and watched. NO OIL! The timing chain was throwing oil, but none through the pushrods.
Here's how I fixed it. Slam me if you must, but it worked. I took a small piece of tubing, about 3/16th diameter and affixed it to my air compressor nozzle. I placed it over each pushrod oil hole and blew air at about 50 psi. I did this until I started to see oil flow from the adjacent pushrods. Started her up, and all was quiet. I changed the oil after this and put it back together.
300 miles later,(fingers crossed), my engine is fine. Its so quiet, that I am thinking about blowing out the passengers side with the same procedure.
So again, slam me if you must about the shadetree fix, but I gotta make do with what I have.

Randy

 

May I ask what oil and what change intervals was done over the engine life so far?
To have sludge to that degree is a question!
What was the filters doing, during all this?
Modern oils are very good about holding contaminants in suspension if the change intervals are at least reasonable.
Since you brought this to the board, i'm just asking.
I have a 160k mile 5L that is not in that condition.

 

I personally have changed the oil every 3k. But it had 36K when I bought it so I dont know what went on when it was young. I know what you are saying. I do plan to pull the oil pan to look, and possibly clean/change the oil pump.

 

You have a serious problem, Ford accidently put pushrods in your overhead cam Modular 4.6. I would take it to Ford and see what they say about that.

 

lol

 

I gotta see pictures of the pushrods in that overhead cam engine.

 

maybee its a hybrid OHC/pushrod uses push rods for the exhaust valve and OHC for the intake valves!!!!

 

I just had my 5.4 rebuilt due to upper valvetrain rattle . It would rattle like a combine at low rpm( idle to 2k ) everything else was soild other that that . Well after the teardown this is what was found . The timing chains were so streched that one was slapping the block and the other was grinding into the oil pump. It was so bad that the chains were wore almost to the pins in the links . If the chain would have wore through much more on the oil pump it would have ground a hole into the relief valve of the pump . If this would have happen it would have stop pumping oil and we know what happens if theres no oil going to the top .Since the truck had 103k on it i just rebuilt the whole motor instead of just the valve train componets ,during the rebuild i found 3 out of 8 pistons showed piston slap. so now i have a 5.4 + .20 bore and all new goodies inside. Now all i hear is the injectors pumping the fuel in , how sweet the sound . I had this rattle for some time (6-8mos ) but it got progressivly worse as the weather turn warm to the point of it was very emberassing to even drive it .My 1st thought of this noise was ether a water pump or oil pump going south but everything seam to be ****ioning ok ,but as i learned more about the trition motors and had it in for a look see by a pro the repair bill jump from a simple fix to a major overhaul . Ouch that hurt the wallet . But now i should be good for another 100k . On the 1st tank full of break-in i ran it up north and was able to get 15mpg w/ 33" mudders(285X75RX16) on it , before i was getting around 12-13mpg . I had it up to 17mpg before the tire swap from stock .
Im due for new treads so im going to drop to 32"s(265X75RX16) to help the mpg and keep the big look . i figure between the 2 ( tight motor and tire size ) i can get it back to 17 . Basicly by the time snow flies ill have a new truck and no payment book . my next step is to replace the ball joints and shocks before the new meats .

 

OK OK, I'm still learning here guys, and I know I'm using the wrong terminology . So can someone tell me how the valve train on the OHC engine is constructed? What path does the oil take to the top of the engine? I definitely had some obstruction in the oil flow becuase when I started it with the valve cover off, the cam was dry.(Except for the oil slinging off the chain). I know it doesent have pushrods, I guess I just dont know exactly what I'm looking at.

 

Ok, cuz i was gonna say, how do you have pushrods?

Adrianspeeder

 

run some B12 though the crank case like pour it in the oil spout.. let it idle maybee 5 min. u might have gunk built up on the oil pick up screen or your oil pump is out... are both heads being starved of oil or just one?