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Topic: New Clicking Sound from Engine Update! (Read 5141 times) previous topic - next topic

New Clicking Sound from Engine Update!

Reply #30 –
Have you had your timing chain cover off?
Quote from: jcassity
I honestly dont think you could exceed the cost of a new car buy installing new *stock* parts everywhere in your coug our tbird. Its just plain impossible. You could revamp the entire drivetrain/engine/suspenstion and still come out ahead.
Hooligans! 
1988 Crown Vic wagon. 120K California car. Wifes grocery getter. (junked)
1987 Ford Thunderbird LX. 5.0. s.o., sn-95 t-5 and an f-150 clutch. Driven daily and going strong.
1986 cougar.
lilsammywasapunkrocker@yahoo.com

New Clicking Sound from Engine Update!

Reply #31 –
Quote from: Haystack;333331
Have you had your timing chain cover off?


No. Why?

New Clicking Sound from Engine Update!

Reply #32 –
Alright, I went out and played with the car for a little while today while it's nice out. If you recreate the situation, and you remove plug wire 3 and number 7 (the third one back from the front of the car on each side) the noise will go away. No I can't unplug the injectors because they are under the intake, but I thought these being directly across from each other might say something. Anyone got any ideas? What could this mean.

New Clicking Sound from Engine Update!

Reply #33 –
It means that your engine is misfiring and your timing is off.

On my car, I had a timing chain cover leak. I pulled it off to re-do the gasket, and my timing chain had enough slack that I could almost touch the chain. Thinking back, I am sure that it slipped a tooth or two. I did not re clock the timing chain, and just threw it together as quick as possible. It was 9:00pm monday , and I needed the car for a 150 mile commute at 6:00am the next morning. The stock timing chain is a single roller, stock mustang is a double roller. Some 87's had plastic gears. Mine did not. I think you may have slipped a tooth on your timing chain, or your dist is in wrong, or both. Basically, you need to get a piston stop. Figure out where top dead center is and make sure that your #1 valve is where it should be.

What kind of power does the car have? Does the car fall flat on its face before/after 3,000rpm's?

Thought I should mention, my dist is clocked the exact same way as yours. I removed the a/c bracket to pull the dist closer to the drivers side, and my pinging went away and I left it at that.
Quote from: jcassity
I honestly dont think you could exceed the cost of a new car buy installing new *stock* parts everywhere in your coug our tbird. Its just plain impossible. You could revamp the entire drivetrain/engine/suspenstion and still come out ahead.
Hooligans! 
1988 Crown Vic wagon. 120K California car. Wifes grocery getter. (junked)
1987 Ford Thunderbird LX. 5.0. s.o., sn-95 t-5 and an f-150 clutch. Driven daily and going strong.
1986 cougar.
lilsammywasapunkrocker@yahoo.com

New Clicking Sound from Engine Update!

Reply #34 –
Timing is off. I'm fairly certain of it at this point as you had to pull the distributor to replace the intake gasket.
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.

New Clicking Sound from Engine Update!

Reply #35 –
Quote from: Haystack;333688
It means that your engine is misfiring and your timing is off.

What kind of power does the car have? Does the car fall flat on its face before/after 3,000rpm's?

Thought I should mention, my dist is clocked the exact same way as yours. I removed the a/c bracket to pull the dist closer to the drivers side, and my pinging went away and I left it at that.


Car power above 3000rpm? I don't really think it revs that high, usually. I did floor it last week on the highway and it downshifted right away and took off okay.  If i rotate the TFI towards the driver side more, therefore spinning the distributor clockwise, the engine dies. The timing is set just at 10* right now.

How can the distributor be in wrong? With the TFI module on the distributor, it's not like it can be in backwards, right?

I'm sorry if I seem dumb here, I don't know much about this stuff, and I'm just trying to fix it, I'm on a budget.

New Clicking Sound from Engine Update!

Reply #36 –
The distributor, well at least the TFI is roughly right where it was before the engine was removed. Now it's possible the timing skipped a tooth at one point, and maybe the car was configured around it?

When the dist. was taken out, I didn't mark it,  and we put it in, the car didn't run. We reset the wires on the dist. according to the ford book. So it was changed from what it was. Any suggestions? I'm afraid to pull it apart and not get it running again... What could have been done?

New Clicking Sound from Engine Update!

Reply #37 –
Wow, I've been folowing this for a while, seems like a real killer.

What their saying is not about the dist cap,  but the entire dist itself (the shaft that goes into the block). If you're distrubutor gear does not match correctly on the tooth that it mates with on the cam (timing) gear, then you can mess with timing all you want and not get it right. But, since you say your timing is set correctly at 10* then most likely it is on the right tooth. Did you ever pull the shaft out at anytime? That is what they are trying to ask.

Your distrubutor cap is independent of the distrubutor, which is what the rotor is attached to. When you rotate your dist. cap you change the point in which the dist rotor hits the points on the cap. If the distrubutor shaft is on the wrong tooth, it will hit prematurely or too late, thus making cap based timing impossible.

When I replaced my engine, I had timing issues too. What I did was advance it to about 12*. Idk if this will fix your problem, but try it. If playing with your base spark timing does not fix the problem, then your problem is with valve/piston timing, which is the relationship between the cam and crankshaft. A la timing chain. If your timing chain is stretched, or is off tooth or two (or three) then spark timing will never solve your problem.

I'm not entirely sure, but I believe it is possible that your valves can open far enough for the piston to actually hit them at tdc. I'm pretty sure that is not what is happening. Most likely that is not the problem, or things would me MUCH worse.

Also, are you sure its not a case of light pinging or knocking due to bad combustion?

And have you checked triple sure your sp pl wires are all attached to the correct points on the cap? Its hard to put them on the wrong spots on the block since they are all lenght matched, but if you put your 3 & 7 wires on backwards on the cap, then you could be firing both cylinders wrong, which could def cause a problem. (It would make you run a v6):D
--Steve
[thread=28690]1988 Cougar V6[/thread]
2012 F-150 3.7L
2011 Mustang 3.7L

New Clicking Sound from Engine Update!

Reply #38 –
a mechanic heard the noise the other day, and he said it almost seems like a leak in the emissions tube on the back side of the engine. Now I don't want to contradict this mans fine opinion and decades of experience, but wouldn't it make noise when not under load? Any exhaust tick I've ever heard happened all the time.

New Clicking Sound from Engine Update!

Reply #39 –
Nope, not necessarily in fact I have seen (heard) a lot of exhaust leaks that you could only hear under load ,
Fox-less at the moment

New Clicking Sound from Engine Update!

Reply #40 –
I think there is too much going on here, and too many of your issues have been brought up in too many threads for anyone to really keep track.

I'll bet money your dist is in wrong. That is all I have to say.
Quote from: jcassity
I honestly dont think you could exceed the cost of a new car buy installing new *stock* parts everywhere in your coug our tbird. Its just plain impossible. You could revamp the entire drivetrain/engine/suspenstion and still come out ahead.
Hooligans! 
1988 Crown Vic wagon. 120K California car. Wifes grocery getter. (junked)
1987 Ford Thunderbird LX. 5.0. s.o., sn-95 t-5 and an f-150 clutch. Driven daily and going strong.
1986 cougar.
lilsammywasapunkrocker@yahoo.com

New Clicking Sound from Engine Update!

Reply #41 –
Okay... I try to spread out different problems as to solve them all individually. Other people mentioned the dist. but where the timing is right it seemed to be the general consensus that it's probably right.

New Clicking Sound from Engine Update!

Reply #42 –
Also, I didn't really understand what sarjaxx was trying to say about the car. He said because I got the timing right it is probably unlikely that it's wrong, that's all I understood.

New Clicking Sound from Engine Update!

Reply #43 –
What kind of gas do you run? My cougar pings if I run anything other then 93 octane. That's with my timing at 10*. If it pings with cheap gas then put some better gas in it and see what happens. If for some reason your injector timing is retarded or your ignation timing is retarded it will cause the combustion chamber to get HOT causing it to ping. Have someone check you TFI module. I've heard of people having problems with the TFI dist. too. The ignation advance is controlled by the computer by the magnetic pickup in the dist., it might need to be replaced. If you have access to another dist. I would swap the whole dist. and see if that helps.
88 Cougar LS 5.0 .030 over, ported E7s with GT40 valves & trickflow springs, Proform roller rockers, HO cam, removed air silencer, K&N filter, smog pump delete, 2.25" dual flowmasters, Pacestter H-pipe & headers, HO computer, 65mm TB, Explorer intake, 19# injecters, 3.45s, rebuilt posi, and TCI shift kit.

New Clicking Sound from Engine Update!

Reply #44 –
I usually run 87 octane. This whole problem happened after I changed the intake gaskets. It's a stock 5.0, no mods. I tried the gas thing. I usually run 87 octane, it's always been fine since I put the motor in.  I tried 93 octane with an octane booster just to see, no difference. I almost sounds like an exhaust tick, but it doesn't do it at an idle or in park at all. And if I unplug the 3 or number 6 cylinder, the ticking goes away.  I think, if it was an exhaust problem, leak, it would do it at idle, or when revved in drive, not just under a load.

It may be the distributor, is there a way to check the TFI?

This may seem stupid, but what is the difference between a ping and an exhaust tick? I feel it sounds like a ping/raping as it's only under a load.