4.0l OHV Clicking in Drive/Reverse

[majesticdolphin112]

My truck has been making a clicking/tapping sound while in gear for the past few months and it's getting to a point of actual concern for me. I haven't been able to find any representative videos of it, but the sound is sort of similar to this video at about 10 seconds only much louder. Today I had it left in park as well and while I couldn't hear the clicking noise I could definitely hear a background timing chain rattle, even though my 00' has the OHV engine and not the SOHC. Does anyone know what could be causing this?
I think my truck might also have a failing head gasket, so at this point I'm considering on replacing the engine outright. I found a 4.0l from a 93' Ranger with only 63k miles nearby for $400. Is there any chance that would work in my truck?

 

[RonD]

Welcome to TRS

So "tick" is louder "in gear" but not moving?
Or only when moving?

The "tick" can be an exhaust leak, they can sound metalic and will be louder under load, "in gear", and they get worse over time


Yes, 1990-2000 4.0l can be swapped into your 2000 Ranger
Is its a 1990-1997 you will need to swap over your upper and lower intakes/fuel rail over to the replacement engine, as it a different fuel system

The short single Timing chain was never an issue with the 4.0l OHV engines, it does have a tensioner but rarely caused a problem

 

[majesticdolphin112]

Welcome to TRS

So "tick" is louder "in gear" but not moving?
Or only when moving?

The "tick" can be an exhaust leak, they can sound metalic and will be louder under load, "in gear", and they get worse over time


Yes, 1990-2000 4.0l can be swapped into your 2000 Ranger
Is its a 1990-1997 you will need to swap over your upper and lower intakes/fuel rail over to the replacement engine, as it a different fuel system

The short single Timing chain was never an issue with the 4.0l OHV engines, it does have a tensioner but rarely caused a problem

Thanks for the info. The ticking sound is only present in gear - drive, reverse, first, or second. It happens both while moving and while stationary. I'm familiar with exhaust leaks and I'm pretty confident that's not the issue. I'll get a video of it tomorrow to hopefully give a better idea of what I'm dealing with. The chain sound is a separate issue - I was listening to it today while in park and I can record that portion as well.
If I decided to go with the 93' do you know of any wiring incompatibilities I might run into? I did a stock swap on a 1998 Acura Integra with a 1994 drivetrain and had to do a lot of extra work to make it function in the OBD2 chassis. I'm hoping for the Ranger I would just be able to swap over any additional sensors or anything that might be needed for an OBD2 harness.

Thanks again for the help

 

[majesticdolphin112]

I uploaded a video of the noise my truck has been making, hopefully the audio is clear enough to get an idea of what it could be.

 

[Josh B]

His explanation of the intakes are your main consideration in the engine wiring.
I have to do the same on my 96 to 93, use the old intakes, although you can put a full rebuild kit on them during the process, basically just moving the iron portion of the engine and keeping the vehicles original intakes and fuel rails (along with its' original wiring) in place

 

[majesticdolphin112]

His explanation of the intakes are your main consideration in the engine wiring.
I have to do the same on my 96 to 93, use the old intakes, although you can put a full rebuild kit on them during the process, basically just moving the iron portion of the engine and keeping the vehicles original intakes and fuel rails (along with its' original wiring) in place

Thanks for the info. Based on the rest of the info in this thread, do you think my best bet is just to drop a new engine in? If I can use a 93' motor on my chassis I'll be taking off almost 100k miles from my existing drivetrain hopefully without other issues. At this rate I feel like the engine is gonna have to come out either way

 

[Josh B]

I think what you had in mind first was good. These engines properly cared for can go a long ways. Mine is pushing 400K and still pulling strong, but I have another engine on standby whenever I get to it

 

[RonD]

Listened to the video
Its a 4.0l OHV engine so for sure not timing chain issue

Louder under vehicle would lend itself more to exhaust leak or Cat converter cover rattle

Cold engine
Remove fan belt from crank pulley
Start engine, "Battery Light" will stay on
You can run a cold engine for 90seconds without a water pump
Engine bay will be dead quiet with no fan or accessories spinning
A minute and a 1/2 is a long time to isolate a noise, and you can repeat this test anytime engine is cold again

If possible get a wood or metal rod to use as a stethoscope, it can help you localize an internal engine rattle

If no rattle then the noise is from a pulley on the fan belt

 

[gaz]

@majesticdolphin112 ,

If you do decide to use the 93 OHV engine, I recommend reusing your 98 spec OHV heads (2000) as they have both the:
•fast burn combustion chamber
•smaller, round exhaust ports which match the 2000 exhaust manifolds

Using the 98 spec heads on the 93 block will offer a little over 1 point of compression increase (because of the 93's small dish pistons) worth 2-4% increase in HP and the 93's head oversized exhaust ports will NOT line up well with your 98 spec OHV (2000) exhaust manifolds.

 

[majesticdolphin112]

Listened to the video
Its a 4.0l OHV engine so for sure not timing chain issue

Louder under vehicle would lend itself more to exhaust leak or Cat converter cover rattle

Cold engine
Remove fan belt from crank pulley
Start engine, "Battery Light" will stay on
You can run a cold engine for 90seconds without a water pump
Engine bay will be dead quiet with no fan or accessories spinning
A minute and a 1/2 is a long time to isolate a noise, and you can repeat this test anytime engine is cold again

If possible get a wood or metal rod to use as a stethoscope, it can help you localize an internal engine rattle

If no rattle then the noise is from a pulley on the fan belt

I did some testing this weekend and have good and bad news. First, I pulled all the plugs and found no remnants of burnt up coolant in any of the cylinders, so I think my coolant was either low from an undiscovered leak or from a few weeks back when I flushed the coolant system. It's possible there were just bubbles still trapped that eventually worked themselves out. The second thing I did was remove the serpentine belt as suggested and give it a listen. With the belt off it stopped making the louder tapping noise while in gear, but continued to make the smaller clicky chain-sounding noise that was previously present in the background. This clicky noise is less concerning, especially at it's current volume, so I'm going to come back to it. With the belt off I gave a wobble and a spin to all my pulleys and found the power steering pulley is loose with a fair bit of back and forth play. I'm hoping this is what was causing the louder noise, so I'm going to investigate it further.

All that said, as of yesterday my little truck has developed a new problem: It's started shuddering while driving, almost seems like a transmission issue since it feels the same as when the truck drops into one gear or another, only several successive times in a row. It started doing this around 45-50mph yesterday, but today it was doing it anywhere between 20 and 50mph. The transmission is actually still under warranty from a rebuild a few thousand miles ago, but I've moved since then and the shop is about 5hrs away now.

Honestly at this point I've started pricing out a used Tacoma. My ownership of this truck has been nothing but a huge headache thus far.