Ok, I have a 4.6, and in the past two days I've noticed a loud "ticking" sound when accelerating, and only then. At first, I thought it was a heat shield vibration until I noticed it stopped when I let off the gas. It's also idling a little rough now. Now, here's a little important background info. I was out off roading this past Saturday and played in the usual mud and water. I found an unusually deep water hole. I went through a few times, then hit a deep spot the last time. Water was deep enough to flush over the hood and come in the doors. The truck basically died midway through, but with my pedal floored, it slowly crept to the other side, climbed out of the water, and passed out. It started back up, then stalled. Started again and allowed my to drive it to a sunny spot to dry. After that, it ran fine, save for two more stalls. That was Sat, and yesterday, Tues, is when I started hearing this loud constant TICK when I hit the gas. I've checked the fluids, they're ok, and the plugs look ok too. Any ideas?

S.

 

Might be bad gas? Have had it happen a couple times, tick wasn,t real loud but noticeable.

 

I thought about that before. I've got to go on a little 300 trip for work ina few minuntes, since they're paying for gas, I'm going to fill up with a higher grade gas and see what happens. I'm leaning towards the water flooding out the engine, but why would it takes this many days to surface with the noise if it's related. I guess I'll know more in a couple hours after burning some fuel. thanks for the input.

S.

 

If you would have injested water, you would have hydrolocked. Water don't compress and you can easily destroy and engine this way, rods bend etc. Ticking only on acceleration sounds like a small exhaust leak. Usually you don't here them idling but they do show up under load. Could you have banged your exhaust somewhat that could have loosened a joint up or something. I'd check through that first. The stalling may have just been wet plug wires etc. Typical type problem.

 

MrScot,

It sounds like a high voltage electrical short on a plug wire or coil. The 'tick' sound may actually be the electrical 'zap' or 'snap' created by an arc of electricity to ground. Look under the hood in the dark and have someone rev up the engine and watch for any blue light arcing. This may also explain the rough idle. One cylinder may not be firing all the time, or not at all. If you don't see any arcing occurring, pull one plug wire off at a time and if the rough idle gets worse, you can eliminate that cylinder as the culprit. Move on to the next plug wire until you find the one that does not make the rough idle worse. Be extremely cautious when you do this due to moving parts like belts, fans and your quick reaction to being shocked by the secondary high voltage wire. I normally shut off the engine each time to pull a plug wire, then start it up......I don't like to press the danger envelope too much! Let us know if this helps in troubleshooting the problem.

 

Thanks guys. I just got back from a little 300 or so trip. I filled up with 92, just incase, and it drove a little better. It's not hestitating like it was. But, the Engine light came on on the way home. I'll pull the plugs tonight and see what, if anything happens. The tick is sounding more like exhaust now. And I'm sure it got banged around some. That whole bottoming out thing is one I don't care for when off roading. I'm going to go out there now and take a good look under the hood now that I have some time. I'll keep you posted, and thanks for the advise.

S.