2004 5.4 v8 recently noticed a "tick" coming from engine area, seems to be coming from both passenger and drivers side. louder when engine is warm but its not incredibly loud. also when idle it is slow and while hitting the gas it becomes faster but doesnt seem to get louder. spark plugs are on order will be in tues. am i right in assuming its the plugs?

 

I am not a mechanic, and am probably the last person that should give advice...PCV valve?

It makes a nasty tick, so does the Idler arm...

 

I don't think it's the plugs. Might be your injectors if you here the same noise on both sides or maybe the wrong oil. If you don't use a Motorcraft filter, over time they can get noisy. That's a slow kill.

 

Mike,

How many miles on your truck? Could be the cam phasers.

 

Check to see if you have any exhaust manifold studs broken off. It might be an exhaust leak you hear.

 

Could be the cam phaser(s). TSB states that they are silent when cold and start getting noisy when hot. Should go away when >1KRPMs as well. How's the engina sound when it's cold? Usually best heard down near the wheel wells.

 

77k. i use pennzoil platnium full synthetic. napa gold filter.

 

What weight oil ? Motor craft filters are recommended to prevent dry starts. They have the anti drain valve - You should have a sticker under the hood somewhere. I think Mobil1 filters are of the same quality. I'm not sure on the Napa gold. I think your oil should be 5w 20w as well.



Someone else should confirm this for you, I have a older model, you have the 3 valve, so I'm not positive. However, I am sure about the Motorcraft filter, you shouldn't substitute that unless your sure the filter used has the anti drain-back valve.

 

Nope. The 04 5.4 is the 3V, those are the plugs that don't want to come out at all, not the ones that launch themselves.

 

It is not the plugs. Most likely fuel injector noise, it it is a light ticking sound. The cam phasers make more of a knock. Most of them make the injector noise and it is not a problem, just noisy.

 

I had the ticking and it turned out to be a loose spark plug wire on my 97 4.6.
The wires were top of the line NAPA's but for whatever reason the number 1 and 3 boots loosened up after about a year. If you have cops- this may not apply. If you think it might be a bad PCV use a long wooden dowel of a long alignment tool as a sounding rod. I had the ticking PCV valve again with a NAPA pcv valve. When I changed it the truck would stall until I disconnected the battery and reset the computer. Hope this helps.

 

Yea , thats the first thing I thought it was - Mine are noisy as hell - After putting a set of LT headers on , I can here them damn injectors echoing thru the chambers under the freakin truck now

 

I have the same problem with the ticking on my 1997 f150 as well. just past 150k miles on mine and it has never had spark plug change. the other day i was going up a slight inslope hill and my truck shook a little bit and i noticed my check engine light came on. i took my truck to auto zone and they tested it and found it was a cylinder 2 miss fire. not quite sure what that means. can any1 tell me. i have read up on it and i came across a couple of things, might be my injectors that need to be cleaned or just a "brain fart." anyways, i have also noticed that i have lost alot of hsp on my truck, when i press on the gas wanting to speed up, it just doesnt want to go. i can hear something, like a rattling but cant quite make out what the noise is.

 

You need to replace the coil atop the spark plug. Go ahead and change them all. Once one goes bad, the rest follow... Might as well change all of them to save some time and headaches. Not sure where to get the best price on them. I would even change the boots...make sure to use dielectric grease.

 

i ebay search for "global automotive" they have a set for 90 bucks shipped to your door. I just did all the plugs and COPS this weekend...it would almost be worth the 250 bucks at the dealership. It was a really time consuming job.