2002 ford ranger 4x4 xlt 4.0

History: the body has 232k original miles but the transmission and engine were replaced at 170k. The truck runs great. Im used to driving 4.3 car so shes a bit sluggish to me. Its a good project truck for me for the price.
issues: You ever hear of a 4.0 making a ticking sound after a decent drive? i drove about 30 miles last night and when i parked i could hear and feel a ticking rhythem inside the cab coming from the engine compartment. Shut the truck off and pulled the key. Popped hood and the ticking sound continued. It sounded like a ticking clock. Almost like something was trying to spin over but couldnt, it had a similar sound of a solenoid click but had enough force to vibrate the truck. It lasted for about 4 minutes after the truck was off. I felt around the distributor cap and ran my hand over the motor to try and locate a vibration but couldnt locate it. Started and ran fine. Im reading all kinds of . But i did notice its eating coolant. No leaks. Just a drained reservoir about an inch over 100 miles. Thats a little disconcerning considering i could blow up my block if its leaking into it. But my transmission has a stall in the rear. RPMs climb and my rear catches abrubtly. This happens from stop and go or when taking long bending turns and you give it a littlle more gas to make it around. So coolant trans leaks is possible as well. I have plans to take the truck in for pressure tests of the coolant lines. Anyway. Wanted to pick your brains if you encountered anything similar with the ticking sound.

I drove the truck today the same distant to manipulate the noise. Upon visual inspection in the engine bay you could see the coolant lines running from my firewall to the bottom of the block were bouncing in time with the noise. More prominant on the bottom hose under the stat.

does this mean this thing is chugging water? Like my earlier post stated im taking the truck into the shop for pressure testing. Any help of what may be going on is appreciated. Thank you

 

Welcome to the forum

You probably have a leaking thermostat housing, which was a common issue on the 4.0l SOHC engines
Read here: https://howtoreplacefordthermostathousing.com/

Just FYI
1990-2000 Rangers used the 4.0l OHV engines
2001-2012 used the 4.0l SOHC engines
Quite different engines


Ticking noise could be quite a few things but if engine and key were off that would mean not an engine or trans issue
I know Cat converters can make a noise when cooling down, maybe engine is running a bit rich causing cats to get hotter than normal

There are few relays under the dash that could do that, maybe 1 or 2 in the engine fuse box as well
I would try to localize it better


You will have a 5R55E transmission and I remember reading something like you describe as a problem with the coast clutch, when you take your foot off the gas the trans goes into "coast" mode, then there is a delay, which there shouldn't be, when you step on the gas pedal again, so not coming out of coast mode instantly

Just FYI, A4LD, 4R44E, 4R55E, 5R44E, 5R55E are all the same transmissions mechanically, so any info about one applies to all the others
Alphabet soup, lol

Also another common issue was the PCV Valve elbow, under side rubs on engine and cracks, causing vacuum leak and lean engine codes

Fix for it here: https://www.ranger-forums.com/4-0l-o...mon-cel-93776/

 

Thanks for the posts on V6~4.0L~SOHC engines & TStat housings; good reference info.
Replaced the old leaking FRPlastic TStat Housing with a new Aluminum TStat Housing
in 2019Aug on a 2001 Ford ExSportTrac; no leaks as of 2020Mar after ~5K more miles.
My full write up with pics on that repair:
http://2001fordexplorersporttrac.fandom.com/Coolant_ThermoStat_Housing