Does anyone know what this noise may be? Possible lifters or a rod? It just started about a week ago, not long after recent oil change. I used a Motorcraft filter and 5w30 oil. This truck isn't driven much, mainly just around town is all, it rarely ever sees above 35-40 mph also. The noise seems to get worse when the engine is warm, and increases with rpm. It sounds like its coming from under the valve cover, but I'm not 100% sure.





98 Ranger 2.5 with 5 speed

 

Sure sounds like a noisy lifter...
Easy enough to diagnose by removing the valve cover.
There shouldn't be any play in the rocker arms.
If not a lifter then maybe the rocker arm is coming lose and or has become damaged some how.
If the truck isn't driven much, lifters don't like short runs.
They have a tendency to foul up.

And about your concern of bad rod, that has more of a deep knocking sound _ the noise in the video doesn't like that.

Others may suggest to add Sea Foam to the oil and taking it on a good free way run at, at least 60 mph for 1 hour.
I'm not a believer in that stuff though, but some swear by it.

 

I am leaning to believe it is a lifter or lifters also, it's constant and you can hear it even while driving.

 

An update, I think the noise may be caused by a short, it appears my brand new spark plug wires are arcing and at times you can even see current flowing through them. I checked them while it was dark and sure enough looks like my new wires aren't so good, and I just bought them recently. I guess that could cause the noise to.

 

Yeah...
I suppose that a spark jumping could cause a noise like that.
For it to be that noticeable one would think that it would cause a misfire.
When you look at it in the dark, can you see an arc that coincides with the noise ?

 

Well on the passenger side is where the shorting is happening. On the number 4 plug I can see the wire arcing between the plug and the metal bracket for the dpfe sensor, but i also see what looks like to be the number 1 plug wire lightning up.

 

Solved the problem, it wasn't lifters after all, the coil pack connector for my passenger bank spark plugs was bad, and it was shorting out and arcing. I replaced it with a new one, and no more shorts, arcing, or clattering sound.

 

Thanks for the update.