Hmm i might have a
Thank you for reading!

 

My 04 ran excellent, no heat, no leaks, good head gaskets.
Ticked loudly once it warmed up. A hammering tick, not a knock.
I took the engine out, and found the rod, main, and cam bearings all visibly worn out.
Strange, as I was sure the engine would have knocked, but it didn't. All I can think is that the sound resonates differently through the aluminum, vs cast iron.
My block and crank are still at the machine shop.
Honing cylinders, and polishing the crank, as they were in good shape. Also having them install cam bearings and freeze plugs.
4 of the pistons (B pistons, so engine was into before) were out of spec by several thousandths. Which is also a known cause of ticking. So I will be ordering a new set.
All 8 cylinder liners look good. No signs of them moving up, as the head gaskets have no impressions from a sleeve hitting them, and as said, I had no heating, Co2 in coolant, oil in anti-freeze, or vice versa.
Regardless, I will be pinning all 8 liners as prevenative measure.
I have seen and read enough to know it is 100% possible that liners can slip, although likely not that common.
I am doing a total rebuild, this thing is not going to tick when I'm done(refurbished heads too).
The flexplate also looked good, no stress cracks around the holes.
There are many causes of the ticking.
Including lifters, rockershafts, oil pump, all of which I replaced prior to pulling the engine, as they obviously didn't stop the ticking, but they can on some engines.
Basically, these 4.6s wear out on average of around 100k miles, and to what parts each engine needs, and at what mileage will vary.
I ended up too deep into mine to turn back. As I could sell it for nothing and lose a few grand, no thanks. Or, spend some more and fix it right. I have no plans to get rid of it at the moment, but regardless of what causes the tick, it's not worth much running and ticking either.
On the positive side, clean, well maintained, D2 prices seem to be on the rise
Having a solid truck with everything working, with a stack of reciepts, beats ticking or not running any day.
Maybe one day I'll break even on it...lol.

 

Holy Sh*t Sixpack!!

You are one dedicated enthusiast, quote I heard online right before I made my purchase 2 years ago regarding these beautiful British moneypits "easy to fall in love with, not so easy to live with"

i can live with a little ticking just as long as it's not the sleeves .let me tell ya something I'm a used car dealer and I bought mine for $1,800 June of 16 and I had offers for $4,000 $5,000 but I wanted to keep it because I just really like it and to be honest girls love these things for some reason!! I can't understand they mostly have no clue LOL! they think it's some sort of rare Jeep Grand Cherokee. But I know it's not like a regular truck and I to will be lucky to break even and people in the auction look at me like I have three heads because it's the mortal sin of the dealer world to be in a car for more than you can get for it. But I'm in too deep as well!! Thank you for those numerous reasons and things to look at in these engines right around a 100k.

 

Well my 2 cents, if an oil change removed the tick for a while then it came back. I would suspect the top end. If it was the bottom end an oil change should not make any difference to the ticking, unless the original oil was really out of spec.

Could be be an exhaust leak tick ?

 

Ha! Money pit to fall in love with, but not so easy to live with. Yeah! That is it.
I think buying rust free discos with ticking or overheated engines isn't a bad idea. I see many good lucking ones for $500-$1k, obo, on Craigslist often.
If you had room to keep a few, I think they will be future money makers. Lucky8 has cheap and realistic quality part prices too. And, as easy as these are to work on.
The dwindling numbers of good Discos has noticeably gone down, and non running, way up.
I've been watching prices and availability for years now.
I'de hoard a few if I could.

 

Well but it comes and goes, and it's muffled now and it only appears after 15 minutes when the truck warms up about 175° it starts ticking away. Exhaust leak is last thing i'd expect

 

Walked Cam bearing/bearings starving the top end of oil.

 

you think if it is that then putting in some Lucas oil stabilizer you might quiet it down a bit at least long enough until I can get someone to replace the cam and everything else?

 

Yes, an exhaust leak can tick.
A failing lifter can temporarily pump back up from an oil change too.
Basically, these aren't high mileage engines like most of us are used to.
Many...or all of the engine parts can tick.

 

No oil additive will help with bearing noise, only temporarily pumping up a failing lifter.
As said, my cam bearings were shot too, but none had walked.