I am really hoping to get the motor out today and I will know more. Man I really hope the liners haven't slipped yet.

 

I doubt they have. If you've got bad crank bearings, that's more than likely what it is. That may be a guess but, those bad bearings are more than enough to make the noise you are describing. I've heard many people talk about slipped liners in these engines but, I haven't seen too many ACTUAL cases of it. My Rover had one hell of an irritating tick at idle, only when warm but has NO slipped liners. What it did have was a cam bearing that fell out of its journal and was rattling around on the top of the cam. It would be fine when I first started it up, then as soon as it warmed up it would tick like hell all the time at idle. Actually, sometimes it wouldn't tick for days at a time, so I can't say it always ticked. The reason it ticked only when warm was probably due to oil pressure, plain and simple. When you first start it up in the morning, the oil is at its thickest, therefore making more oil pressure. The engine warms up, oil thins out and you begin to hear it tick loudest at full operating temperature. Rev up the enginge and the oil pressure comes up and drowns out the sound by putting a cushion between the cam and the failed bearing. I have also heard of the piston skirts collapsing so when the engine sits at idle, the pistons rock in their bores making a clicking sound. I have also heard of the cups on the rocker arms loosening up when the engine warms up and making a hell of a racket. It's hard to say for sure with these engines until you get it apart and see what has failed, good luck to you.

 

I finally got the motor out and on a stand. Last rod bearing was sloppy loose. There is a worn spot on the crank that I am worried is too deep to machine out and I am going to need a different crank. Ill post pics and write more when I take it apart completely

 

Ok, got the motor taken apart today. Found the #7 and #8 crank journal is wasted. Definitely see how the rods were so loose now. Motor definitely needs a crank. Great news is liners don't appear to have slipped. All of the liners seem to flush with the rest of the top of the deck. Heads and Head gaskets look fine, don't see any evidence that they heads or gaskets have been getting hit by the liners. Weird thing is the rod bearings seem to be worn the worst at the rear of the motor on 7/8 and progressively look better towards the front of the motor. I assume this is because the oil pump was weak and the bearings further away from the oil pump were starving for oil more so than the others. Will just replacing the oil pump gears fix the oil pump problem? I didn't do a pressure check before taking the motor apart cause I really thought my noise was a slipped liner and not a rod rock. After seeing how the rods were worn I am now more concerned that oil pump problems must have caused this.

 

Pull the oil pump and look, might as well change the gears while you have it apart.

 

I forgot to mention this is an 03 with 112xxx miles on it and the Vin # is within the deadly range.

 

It may have lost oil pressure, at least partially, either that or it got beat BAD! The bearings at the rear of the motor are the farthest from the pump and may be the reason they have the most wear. The liners in these engines can and DO slip but, slipped liners seems to be the exception and not the rule with these particular engines. I don't think it's right that every time someone has a tick in one of these things, someone says "it's probably a slipped liner" I know they're just trying to help but, there are MANY more reasons why these engines tick and liners are rare from what I've actually seen and heard of them.
Make SURE you check that motor out really good if you plan to rebuild it and reuse it. With the crank in that kind of shape, you've got to make sure you find ALL the damage and fix it all. If you are going to reuse any of the pistons in that engine make sure you check them all for scoring and measure all of them with a caliper to make sure none of the skirts have collapsed. These are known to collapse and cause a tick in these engines, when at low RPM's they rock in the bores and you get piston slap. Although, collapsed piston skirts are not a death sentence with these engines it's well worth the money to stop that irritating tick! Good Luck, Man. Keep us posted on your progress.

 

Oh, and take a good look at the camshaft as well as the bottom side of the lifters. They're supposed to have a hardened surface on them whick is shiny like chrome. A worn one will look brown or more copper colored. Mine has a few spots on the lobes where they have wear but, most of the surface area still looks good. I'm going to hold off on that stuff for a while. (hopefully until past 200,000 miles, maybe NEXT time the head gaskets go!)

 

Ok here are pictures of the rod bearings. Pretty interesting the way they look from back to front. 8/7 are on the left and count down to #1 all the way on the right. Far left is really thin and no copper there at all. 6/5/4 are showing mostly copper and 3/2/1 are only showing a little copper

 

here are the crank journals. it looks like the bearing is still clamped on but its not. the most worn was #8. With the pan off this is why there was soooo much play in the rod. Other pic is of journals for 1/2 and 3/4 which seem ok. Just want to put this out there for anyone else who has an 03/04 4.6 with noise. Everything I read said these motors only make noise when a liner slips. So i took engine apart prepared to install top hat liners. Liners don't seem to have slipped at all and here you can see the shape of the bearings and crank. Its not too bad to pull the pan off so I would recommend that as a first step. I would also recommend installing an oil pressue gauge I am definitely doing that as I reinstall this motor for obvious reasons.