Cylinder 4 heavy ticking- solved
#1
Cylinder 4 heavy ticking- solved
On my 02 4.6L vin 6 (Windsor):
Noticed last week a ticking that suddenly got noticeably louder. Went through all the thoughts: bad COP, loose plug, loose lash adjusters, etc. Decided to pull the COP and plug and see if anything there was not quite right.
First thing, since I don't have a mechanic's stethoscope, I pulled some of dad's old Mickey Mouse U touches and grabbed a telescoping magnet- like for reaching dropped nuts and bolts. With my thumb over the end in my ear, I started touching COPS. Sure enough, #4 was ticking like a....I don't what- some kind of annoyingly "ticky" thing. Yay- the hardest one to get to.
Lo and behold, as I was fishing out extensions and joints to get on my socket, as soon as I had that socket down in the hole with enough extension to grab, I turned it and that durn plug was not even finger tight! How was it staying in? Anyway, seeing how somehow I missed torquing it properly last time, I got that thing out, looked it over, cleaned it and stuck it back in. Got it finger tight and hit it with WD-40 as I had no dielectric grease and now no way to get to the local auto parts store.
8 total pieces of extensions and joints later, I re-torqued that thing to 28#- made sure of it this time, and fired it up.
Roar and bingo. Done. Purring like a kitten after about 1 hour out of my life and who knows how much $ saved.
Moral....I don't know. It seemed the make-shift stethoscope was invaluable here. Been scouring threads all week for ideas and clues to diagnose and figured I would throw my own spin on the problem.
Life is good again, pulse returns to normal, and God is good.
Noticed last week a ticking that suddenly got noticeably louder. Went through all the thoughts: bad COP, loose plug, loose lash adjusters, etc. Decided to pull the COP and plug and see if anything there was not quite right.
First thing, since I don't have a mechanic's stethoscope, I pulled some of dad's old Mickey Mouse U touches and grabbed a telescoping magnet- like for reaching dropped nuts and bolts. With my thumb over the end in my ear, I started touching COPS. Sure enough, #4 was ticking like a....I don't what- some kind of annoyingly "ticky" thing. Yay- the hardest one to get to.
Lo and behold, as I was fishing out extensions and joints to get on my socket, as soon as I had that socket down in the hole with enough extension to grab, I turned it and that durn plug was not even finger tight! How was it staying in? Anyway, seeing how somehow I missed torquing it properly last time, I got that thing out, looked it over, cleaned it and stuck it back in. Got it finger tight and hit it with WD-40 as I had no dielectric grease and now no way to get to the local auto parts store.
8 total pieces of extensions and joints later, I re-torqued that thing to 28#- made sure of it this time, and fired it up.
Roar and bingo. Done. Purring like a kitten after about 1 hour out of my life and who knows how much $ saved.
Moral....I don't know. It seemed the make-shift stethoscope was invaluable here. Been scouring threads all week for ideas and clues to diagnose and figured I would throw my own spin on the problem.
Life is good again, pulse returns to normal, and God is good.
#4