Weird rattle ONLY when warmed up

Hey all, this is my first post here. I've been lurking for a few weeks, and figured I should join in the fun

So I traded my old car for this ranger 3 weeks ago. its a 2007, XL 2WD, with a flat deck. The dash says it only has 187xxx Kms on it, but the guy listed my old car as having 119xxx kms on it (when I traded him it had over 242xxx kms) so I'm not sure how accurate that is.

The previous owner trashed it completely through the hills here, all shocks are toast, ball joints, wheel bearings (the front spindle nut was hand tight. I didnt even need a socket to take it off), and the tie rods had more play than a 6 year old discovering dunkaroos. I knew I was getting into to something serious when I traded for it, but I wanted a new project to tinker with.

The frame is solid, and the flat deck is neat. It had no front bumper, and they had cut the bumper mounts off (seriously). So I had to fab up my own bumper brackets to mount an XLT bumper (I wanted the fog lights).

Anyway, thats the history of the truck. TL;DR - It needs some TLC.

This engine rattle has been bugging me though. I have listened to a bunch of youtube videos with rod knock, and the camshaft synchro, but they don't sound similar to this noise.

It only 'rattles' when the engine is under light to no load. AND, only once it is fully warmed up. It doesn't rattle when cold. And it doesn't rattle when under load (like accelerating) but if you are coasting and just give it a little gas, it starts to rattle.

It almost sounds like my old saturn when the timing chain was loose and smacking the bad tensioner, But again, I know very little and would LOVE if you could help me out.

And if it was a rod knocking, wouldn't that be audible at startup, and only get worse under load?

I am including this youtube clip of me in the truck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEd0Vdc2GOM

Thanks for any and all help. and I look forward to doing lots of work to this truck! I love it, and don't mind fixing it up at all. It's all a learning experience. I am toying with an engine swap, but not sure yet.

Crawl under and bang on the cats with a rubber mallet.

Also, do you know why the check engine light is on?

Engine light is on for the Purge Valve. Buddy who had it before me just cut the gas line so it is venting to atmosphere. That's the only code that comes up for all of it.

Okay, I will bang on the cats. What is this going to do? Just so I know for the future

Trocko said:

Okay, I will bang on the cats. What is this going to do? Just so I know for the future

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It's going to tell you if the cats are the source of your noise or not.

oh lol. duh. sorry.

the rattle seems to increase with rpm.

I will go out tomorrow and check them though. its dark and were about to get some snow

Trocko said:

were about to get some snow

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Enjoy. That storm already went over me.

didn't hear the rattle on the video. is it spark knock/pinging?
you have the 2.3 4 cylinder right? those have a cam sensor that goes thru the valve cover and directly monitors the intake cam. no moving parts in the cam sync sensor, so no noise from them.

I currently have 335,000 mi 539,000 km on my 2005. no internal parts have been replaced.

pjtoledo said:

didn't hear the rattle on the video. is it spark knock/pinging?
you have the 2.3 4 cylinder right? those have a cam sensor that goes thru the valve cover and directly monitors the intake cam. no moving parts in the cam sync sensor, so no noise from them.

I currently have 335,000 mi 539,000 km on my 2005. no internal parts have been replaced.

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I could barely hear it, and it was hard to tell what it was.

Hard to hear in the video, but to me that sounds an awful lot like a rod.

A rod will make more noise when warm after the oil thins out, and will make more noise under light or no load.

Drain the oil, look for shavings, remove the filter and cut it open, look for shavings.

it could be a busted/cracked flywheel, but that shouldnt matter cold or warm. Also *possibly* a wrist pin or piston slap, but either way, its not gonna end up being good.

It's the 3L vulcan in the truck.

I banged on the cats, no rattling or anything.

I'm going to change the oil this weekend so i'll look for shavings.

I'll try to get a better video of the rattling.

Thanks for all your help.

I hope its not a rod lol.


Also, im not sure about the previous owners maintenance. THough I am fairly certain it has had the shit beaten out of it offroad. so if it ended up being a rod or spun bearing, it wouldn't be the most surprising thing hah.

How hard is it to replace bearings? I've never worked on an engine yet, so a good learning experience for sure

Trocko said:

It's the 3L vulcan in the truck.

I banged on the cats, no rattling or anything.

I'm going to change the oil this weekend so i'll look for shavings.

I'll try to get a better video of the rattling.

Thanks for all your help.

I hope its not a rod lol.


Also, im not sure about the previous owners maintenance. THough I am fairly certain it has had the shit beaten out of it offroad. so if it ended up being a rod or spun bearing, it wouldn't be the most surprising thing hah.

How hard is it to replace bearings? I've never worked on an engine yet, so a good learning experience for sure

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Changing the bearing is easy. But, it involves pulling the motor, unhooking every wire on the harness, and yanking the oil pan.

Its not a good idea to change just one bearing. If one went the others arnt far behind. Me personally, unless you wanna do a whole rebuild, buy a crank kit, itll come with a new crank (which youll need) and all associated rod/main bearings.

However, seeing as how the junkyards are full of 3.0s, id go that route instead. Espicially if you think that motors been whupped on.

Unless of course, you wanna tear the whole thing down, get the block machined, and replace the cam, bearings, timing set, rings, etc.

My girlfriend's father owns a junkyard 4 hours away from me. I am going to try and get the truck there and maybe swap it over easter break if that's the case. Or drive until she blows and tow it up there this summer.

I will get a better video on saturday and change the oil to inspect for shavings

Don't just inspect the oil. Cut the oil filter open and check the media.

Well, I cut the filter open, and holy balls... engine is toast.
I didn't have to cut the filter open though, the oil was absolutely littered with metal shavings.

I threw some STP high mileage treatment in, and some fresh oil. the knocking is quieter, but I know its only temporary. If I can make it 300 kms, I can get a 'new' engine from a junkyard. if not, it will be a summer project lol.

Thanks for your help! I will be back once I have the next engine in

Does it matter what 3.0 I use? As long as its 98 or newer? Can I just swap parts between the engines? Or do I need to get a 2007 3.0?