Good news ,engine seems to run fine but there is a noise of some sort. Check out my earlier post. There is a squeele rattle noise that is hard to pin point where it is coming from. The front pullys, power steering pump, it could even be comig from timing chains or trans . The noise is just loud enought that it is hard to pin point exactly , it seems to be coming more from front of engine. Any ides on where to start. it appears engine is fine, took some time to get it to idle , but is idling and have run it up to 2500 rpm,. Iwould hate to hurt engine if something is really ready to go. I dont want to take it out on the road and have it breake down. I known something has to be fixed!! Thanks to all , this is a great forum.

 

Take the serpintine belt off, if it is a front accessory that will let you know where to start.

 

thanks joshmac4.6 , took off belt and still had noise, one probable area eliminated. We let it idle for a couple of minutes, and at idle the noise became real faint. At higher rpms the knocking rattle sound is loud.My wife says it sounds like small blocks of wood flying around, could still be engine, but it runs very smooth, just noisey. It seems like it could be at bell housing trans area. What type of sounds would the torque converter or trans make if something was going. Would this engine run this good if some internals were bad. I can usually fix things if I know what is wrong, but I have a hard time knowing where to start sometimes. Any ideas on what I can eliminate as the source of this noise would be great.

 

Well there is a long list of possibilties: if it is at back of engine it could be a cracked flexplate or internal problem in the converter. Does the sound come from the bottom, middle, top? Let it get up to operating temps, and see if the noise gets worse or better. If it is more at the back, it should eliminate the crank as the prob. but the worse with rpm sounds like a rod bearing, but i haven't heard it so i can't condemn anything, but keep me posted if you do any of this. You are completely across the country, but maybe i can help you figure it out.

 

I would get under it while its running, under the Bell housing and listen to it down there. If it really sounds like it coming from there I would suspect somethings up with the torque converter maybe a bolt came loose there is an inspection hole take that off and take a look in there.

 

Okay Ford Son, here's a country fix for you. Get a 3 foot piece of dowel rod around 3/4" round or larger. Take the belt off and put the end of the rod against the engine where think you hear the noise. Place one hand over the end of the rod and lay your ear on your hand. It will act like a stethoscope and you can pinpoint the noise by moving it around. You'll be amazed at the sounds you're gonna hear.

 

Thanks everyone for your ideas. I have not heard of the dowel trick ,the hose I was using did not seem to work . JOSHMAC4.6 has the same idea I suspect now, Rod bearings. Will this pan on a 4x4 drop down if I remove the cross member, it looks like a tight fit to get it past the front axle. My Dad dropped the pan on my 1978 351m at 90k, replaced the rod bearing and it still sounds good at 160k.Is this possible on this truck.

 

I'm almost positive the whole axle assembly has to be un-bolted and lowered to get the pan off.

 

I f you go to auto zone, you can buy a cheap stethoscope for like 10 bucks. Keep the belts off and listen to the oil pan the bell hosing and the valvcovers. Also listen toi the fron timing cover. If you hear some noise in the oil pan that is dinging around then it is probably the bearings. It is possible to swap the mains and rods out but if you do you have to MAKE SURE FOR SURE that nothing is out of round and or spun!!!!! Let me know what happens.

 

Pull it into a drive thru. If it sounds like a diesel engine it may be your cam phasers.

 

It's a 98 2 valve, no cam phasers there.

 

Thanks too all for advice. Tried the dowel trick, Noise seemed to be coming from trans but could not find any feed back thru dowel anywhere.After it ran for 10 minutes I checked engine again and i got a solid feed back thru timing chain cover area especially the passenger side. How can this noise seem to travel so far to trans? What do I do now , can I take off timing covers or is there an oil blockage problem at tensioners. The oil was real old looking so before I started all this I put in some chevron 10-30. There is very little noise over most of the valve coers , almost vibrates dowel in your hand. What are the likley repairs if it is the tentioners or chains? This truck was only run probably 20 miles maybe 0 miles after they noticed loud noise, could this problem happen suddenly like this . They thought engine was toast after they heard this noise come on so sudden. Maybe even though feedback is thru timing cover its really a valve problem?? thanks again Bob

 

Pulling the front cover is quite a task in vehicle, but if you are getting noises from both, I would def. keep looking into it. Its possible a tensioner has collapsed but I won't make any assumptions. You could remove the valve cover and check tension on the chain, and do a once over of all the followers and springs. If it is coming from the front cover i would NOT reccommend running it, if one of the modulars jumps one tooth, say bye to valves. Hope this helps, let me know of what you come up with

 

More info--- This engine does sound different when it warms up. It is louder at idle after it warms up. I put it in drive, heald it with brakes, and got it up in rpms till I thought it was not safe and the engine became almost normal in sound. I can hear this knock , at idle, with the dowel to my ear on rear of intake manifold , quite a knocking sound. Does this Give any one any more clues? Checked bolts on fly wheel ,6bolts,seemed fine ,thats all I could see through access plates and holes. Boy, I could of already swapped motors with all this head scraching i,ve been doing. Would hate to do the wrong thing though.Is there any thing that could be at rear of intake making such a knock? When its quite under load now, I,m really baffled .I'l bring in a mechanic friend tommorow. thanks Bob

 

Well everyone decided the most likely problem was probably the rod bearings, and it looked like the easiest to checkout. I dropped front axle ,4bolts, cross arrm 4bolts and the pan came right out. Only took one hour,more time to put back together I bet. Sure enough one rod bearing is really bad , scored the crank. I still feel that for $50 its worth a try to see how long the new 8 bearings will last. Any thoughts, Someone told me I can get 2 thousands over size bearings, should I put in standards?? I'll let you know how long it lasts. Now I know I have to start looking for a motor. Thanks to all who helped