I have a 2003 Discovery II with a 4.6. I have been reading all the various engine ticking scenerios, but none seem to fit my situation. My noise is similar to some others; smooth and quiet cold, starts to peck (like a lifter) warm and usally goes away at 1500 rpms or higher. but in a typicall day the noise changes, it will stop, then seems to move to the other side more in the valve cover, then back to a strong consistant peck, then it will become barley noticable at all, even hot. I have replaced the lifteres,(the old ones looked ok) changed oil (four times) with everything you could imagine and done the additives. Any idea?

Thanks,

Jim

 

Have you checked the oil pressure?
What oils and weights have you tried as well as the additives?
I have heard that Marvel Mystery Oil works wonders in this situation.
Did you replace the rockers too or just the lifters?

 

How many miles on the engine? When the noises move around I would, assuming the engine is not gummed up, look at my oil and then at the pressure before tearing it to it especially since what you describe is somewhat normal.

 

for what it's worth....I have recently had to open up yet another can of tick-be -gone myself. To make a very long story short.. the steel inserts in some of my rocker arms (where the pushrods seat ) were loosening up as the engine warmed up and caused a tremendous ammount of ticking noise AFTER rhe engine warmed up,,,,,no ammount of oil changes or additives would help. If your up to it ...remove the valve covers after the engine is warmed up and try to isolate the problem ones.....let us know how it goes

 

10w 30, 10w40, 1040syn. added lucas oil additive, nad seafoam. the engine was clean as can be when we took it down to put lifteres in, no marks or wear apparent on then ends of the lifteres from the push rods.

 

Oil won't make any difference when you get a noise started, it is a temp. bandade.
As already mentioned you need to do a much closer examination of the entire valve train, assuming that your oil pressures are good.

 

This thread has me thinking back to my BMW days.. ahh memories.

Anyways I had 123k miles on that inline 6 when I finally got rid of it (and it still happily tacked up to 7200rpm) and since around ~80k miles it developed a slight tick and various other sounds - a lot of those were VANOS chain/tensioner-related.

After having a couple sheering-out scares with the Mobil 1 15-50 when they switched additives (and re-labeled to the "extended performance" / gold cap) I was looking for a new oil..

I read around for days and days and did a lot of research before I was set on a German company called Lubro-Moly and an oil line called Voll-synthese (true synthetic) it's a group IV 100% synthetic that is NOT made from hydro-cracked mineral oils like Mobil 1.

The stuff is simply incredible - if you want the best for your car you'll take the price hit and start using it. I put this in the M3 and although it was technically a "lighter" weight oil, ALL of the ticking and engine noises instantly stopped and NEVER returned. The car ran better than it ever had (in any temperature) and I'll never forget it. Unfortunately when I sold it and got the mustang I had to stop using it since they don't have anything thin enough for the V8s 5-20 requirement.

SOME napa stores and advance autoparts locations have it, but it is usually NOT on the wall with the rest of the oil. They usually put it on "end-caps" at the end of various isles sometimes in the oil/additive area.


Or you can order it online - http://www.eurosportacc.com/liquimol...nthese_oil.htm $38 for 5 liters (like 5.2qt)

 

The ONLY reason your Ford V8 requires 5w-20 is for CAFE standards, Ford went to all 5w-20 in all engines except diesels to improve the fleets MPG average as well as reduce the need for 5 different drums of oil at the dealerships.
My old work van, a E-250 with the Triton 5.4 said to use the 5w-20, I used Rotella 15w-40 and 250k later she is still running strong.
And these are all heavy hard driven delivery miles too.

 

Just another thought but when you say your engine warms up, how hot is it getting?

My engine started to tick when it "warmed up" about 3-4 months ago and it turned out my t-stat was bad and the engine was getting up to around 220-225 degrees when idle, but the temp gauge stayed right in the middle. In a sense I was over heating my oil and it wasn't able to do its job.

Tick has been gone since the t-stat was replaced.

I know it's a shot in the dark but a thought.

 

Yeah I knew that too, but it's still out of range for that 5-40 (since most of the fords had previously used 5-30)

I'm actually running Mobil1 0-30 in it right now and it seems to be a perfect blend for the extreme hot/cold range we get out here.