2.3 confused rattle

[Mitchell Runions]

Evening guys,got a question. Just purchased a 96 ranger 5 speed with 2.3. 195,000 runs and drives fine. Has a valve clatter under load and after warms up. But also if in normal strain driving but it has gotten worse since replace coolant temp sensor. Had a starting issue but sensor fixed it yesterday. But rattle more noticable now and when rattle happens the oil pressure gauge and temp gauge flicker. But ease off gas the flicker goes away. I'm lost. The previous owner just replaced head gasket. It runs fine and power seems good ? I'm just at a loss right now. Any help or input is helpful.

 

[tomw]

Is 'valve clatter' pinging or cam & follower looseness? The former could be caused by a faulty knock sensor, the latter by low oil pressure. Some years had a pan gasket problem where the gasket turned to 'crumbles' and tended to clot up the oil pump pickup. Oil pressure dropped when that happened. Scraping out using a coat hanger bent to fit sometimes helped(reach in through the drainplug port).
If the knock sensor is faulty, the engine might ping severely. You can check the sensor using a hammer, but I do not remember details.
You can also consider that there may be a lot of carbon buildup in the combustion chambers, causing ping. You can do an 'Italian tuneup' by revving the beans out of the engine for a short while. Some will dribble a bit of water into the engine when it is running at fast idle. A Windex spray bottle works for that pretty well. The water will get flashed to steam as long as you don't go too heavy on the spray, and tend to disrupt the carbon layers. YMMV.
tom