2008 E350 V10 Engine chugging / rattle noise - Page 2

86Scotty · 06-14-2020, 10:53 AM

Start simple. Pull the dog house from inside and get all the intake tubing and other stuff in the way from under the hood and look around REALLY good. Look at all exhaust manifold bolts (some can be seen and gotten to easier from front wheel wells) and check out condition of all plug wiring and COP's. If I were going this far I would just replace all plugs which is cheap and give you a chance to really go over the top of the engine. I'm also wondering if moisture in the spark plug wells is causing a short. I've had it happen and I'm pretty sure it was a V10 or other Ford modular motor. If you don't change the plugs at least pull them, check condition and retorque properly.

Good luck!

Steve_382 · 06-14-2020, 01:07 PM

One other possible source of noise is the heat shield on the catalytic converter. The weld on one end of mine was broken and it rattled like crazy sometimes under load, especially before getting warmed up. I put a stainless hose clamp around it and it hasn't made a sound since.

Mr.Anderson · 06-14-2020, 09:56 PM

Thanks for the feedback Scotty and Steve!

On my daily pilgrimage to home depot i crawled under the van in the parking lot with the engine running and listened and felt the engine block (trying not to burn myself) and looked at the exhaust manifold bolts. Note - this is a fairly new development that i can actually hear the ticking noise parked at idle once the engine is warm, as of like last weekend. Read that as - its getting worse, used to only be under load.

The noise seems worse on the passenger side, i can feel a light physical knock on the engine block in conjunction with the ticking noise. But i think i found the smoking gun, a busted bolt on the drivers side lower exgaust manifold.

All the bolts look like rusted crap but one is completely sheered off. So thats the first step is getting that fixed. Ser picture, this bolt is on the RHS lower driver side part of the manifold. Anyone know if it can that be drilled and tapped without dropping the engine?

marret · 06-15-2020, 06:19 AM

Are you sure the bolt/stud didn't vibrate loose and fall out? Almost looks like nothing inside the hole. Might be wishful thinking.

Steve_382 · 06-15-2020, 06:47 AM

I think that's a common problem on these. Mine has about 140,000 miles also and my dealer said I had a couple of them snapped off too. They wanted to pull the motor to fix them, but so far I am just letting it ride.

Mr.Anderson · 06-15-2020, 07:04 AM

But are you getting this engine ticking noise with those bolts snapped off? There's still a possibility that this busted bolt has nothing to do with the engine ticking noise, i think I will still swap out the plugs, cables, and coil packs, I'm at 140k miles, anyway.

Steve_382 · 06-15-2020, 07:15 AM

I did all my coil packs, etc. at about 110,000 miles. I had one go bad first and just replaced the one. After the second one went bad, I just did them all.

arctictraveller · 06-15-2020, 09:53 AM

The exhaust studs seem to corrode badly, then eventually the expansion and contraction from heat breaks them. I had to replace several on my 5.4. The engine does not have to come out. Drilling them out can be hit or miss, and if you miss, you could end up drilling into the head. In my case, with the manifold removed, there was still a portion of the stud sticking out of the head, so by placing a nut over the stub, then spot welding it, the heat of the weld combined with the ability to turn the stud made them easy to remove. Ford has upgraded replacements, and I simply replaced them all.

JWA · 06-16-2020, 06:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.Anderson

The noise seems worse on the passenger side, i can feel a light physical knock on the engine block in conjunction with the ticking noise. But i think i found the smoking gun, a busted bolt on the drivers side lower exgaust manifold.

.......the bolts look like rusted crap but one is completely sheered off. So thats the first step is getting that fixed. Anyone know if it can that be drilled and tapped without dropping the engine?

There are myriad threads on FTE about broken exhaust studs (especially with the V10 Modular Motors) and the varying steps others have taken to replace them. The process can range from easy peasy to days long problems accomplishing this task mostly due access to the studs with engine in-frame.

Here's a link to that sub-forum, do a search for something akin to "replace exhaust studs" and you should return a lot of great answers: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/forum49/

HTH

Mr.Anderson · 06-17-2020, 04:24 PM

Update, as much as i would like to have this just be a harmless exhauste manifold leak, I'm afraid the tick has gotten worse its more of a knock now and is present at idle as soon as the engine comes on. I had mechanic listen to it over the phone and he said to have it towed to his shop and not to drive it... fun times.

Ill keep this thread updated but I'm going to be traveling for three weeks in july so hopefully when I get back the van will be fixed. being a former chevy Silverado owner, im kind of wishing i had stuck with a Chevy LOL
i had 2500 with the 6.0 v8 with 285000 miles on it still running strong, decided to retire it after the brake lines gave up the ghost, wasn't worth fixing