Urgent help needed - Ticking Chrysler 4.7

[TheSavage4.7]

Hello everyone, prepare for a bit of a long post here.

I have a 2013 RAM 1500. It has been trouble free until October.

One night i got in it to take it on a drive. Truck has always had a cold start tick that got better when it heated up from a broken manifold bolt on the passenger side i never cared to fix.

I noticed the tick was a bit louder, not too much louder, but didn’t care much about it and drove off. After coming home and letting the vehicle cold soak for a few hours, i started it up, and its ticking noticeably loud and the noise does not improve at all when it warms up.

I then started with the process of elimination. I noticed that there was a ticking when the engine was cranking in flood mode that was very noticeable with the engine cold, meanwhile, cranking in flood mode after the vehicle was off resulted in no tick (just in flood mode.)

Then, I popped open both valve covers, replaced all lifters/rockers, sound got a tiny bit better (wasn’t as sharp cranking in flood mode while cold) but while it was running there was 0 change.

Then I ran a compression test, all cylinders ranged from 135-145PSI. I removed the plugs, got a boroscope camera into the cylinders and saw no mechanically made valve reliefs on the pistons, no cylinder bore wear (as you’d expect from a bad wrist pin/skirt slap) and everything looked to be in good shape.

Then, i removed the timing cover, observed that the chain was a bit loose on both sides after the engine was off for around 3-4 days due to the hydraulic tensioners not having any oil pressure to tension down the guides. Once it ran for 15-20 seconds, the guides/chains would be stiff and rock solid again.

Thinking it was a piston skirt or something else related to the bottom end, i dropped the oil pan, found absolutely 0 metal in the pan, 0 movement in the rod bearings, and from what i could tell, no movement in the wrist pins and no sound when i had someone cranking the engine via the crankshaft pulley when i was under the vehicle. There was also nothing wrong with the piston skirts.

Also noticed after buttoning it up and running it after checking all i could that the noise goes away completely when you let off the gas at cruising speed, a bit like how an exhaust leak would. The cranking also changes pitch when it’s cold vs warm, sounding a bit more like it’s low on compression across all cylinders when it’s hot despite the compression remaining the same cold vs hot. Noise is much louder with engine sitting at idle and goes away a bit when it’s at around 1500+ RPM.

Here are some videos:

4.7 Engine Tick




4.7 Cold Crank Tick



4.7 Warm Crank

 

[zrxkawboy]

Wow, you've done a lot of good troubleshooting! You've eliminated all the possibilities I would think it might be. Hopefully someone else has a suggestion (other than the typical "the 4.7 Chrysler is junk" comments that will surely come).

 

[Barkleymut]

How many miles on the engine? Has it done this since new?
I dont know anything about these engines, but it sounds a lot like a Ford with a bad cam phaser.

 

[TheSavage4.7]

Wow, you've done a lot of good troubleshooting! You've eliminated all the possibilities I would think it might be. Hopefully someone else has a suggestion (other than the typical "the 4.7 Chrysler is junk" comments that will surely come).

I’m praying they do, lol. I don’t want to give up on this engine quite yet as i feel she has a lot of life left in her. I also don’t wanna drive it as is and have a rod shoot through the block…

 

[TheSavage4.7]

How many miles on the engine? Has it done this since new?
I dont know anything about these engines, but it sounds a lot like a Ford with a bad cam phaser.

Hasn’t done this ticking sound since new, but it has ticked since new. Only the ticking it did before was silent when it warmed up. This is constant now.

 

[TheSavage4.7]

Also, has 167K.

 

[t1snwrbrdr12]

Maybe due to your broken exhaust manifold bolt(s) the manifold gasket finally blew out. When it was warm before, it’d seal a little better, but now (if) the manifold gasket blew out, warm or cold it isn’t mattering because the leak is that bad now. Just a thought. You’ve done an awful lot of digging into the mechanicals and avoided what you know is wrong, wondering why you didn’t start with what you knew?

 

[Barkleymut]

How sure are you that it does not have any exhaust leak? Have you run a smoke machine? To me it sounds like a timing component or maybe exhaust

 

[atikovi]

If I recall from a Jeep or Ram I had, they throw rocker arms all the time. Maybe one is just loose and on the verge.

 

[TheSavage4.7]

Maybe due to your broken exhaust manifold bolt(s) the manifold gasket finally blew out. When it was warm before, it’d seal a little better, but now (if) the manifold gasket blew out, warm or cold it isn’t mattering because the leak is that bad now. Just a thought. You’ve done an awful lot of digging into the mechanicals and avoided what you know is wrong, wondering why you didn’t start with what you knew?

I’ve avoided checking the exhaust first because I didn’t think exhaust could produce a tick THIS loud. I’m thinking it might’ve blown out, the 08+ 4.7 has a weird exhaust manifold design on the passenger side. Planning on taking them off later in the day along with checking the flex plate to be sure there’s nothing going on there.

 

[TheSavage4.7]

How sure are you that it does not have any exhaust leak? Have you run a smoke machine? To me it sounds like a timing component or maybe exhaust

No smoke machine yet as I don’t have access to one. I do know it has an exhaust leak though. This bolt broke off in the head i’m guessing a while back.

 

[TheSavage4.7]

If I recall from a Jeep or Ram I had, they throw rocker arms all the time. Maybe one is just loose and on the verge.

Replaced those already. The 4.7 is notorious for the rocker arms/lifters though.

 

[PontiacHO]

It’s hard to get any real help when the exhaust leak wasn’t addressed first. It’s hard to pick out where the noise(s) is(are) with multiple sources. 167k is great and it may be time to look for a low mileage salvage unit.

 

[NibbanaBanana]

I had a cracked manifold on my 1990 Dodge telephone van 3.8L v6. Spent a lot of wasted time and effort chasing that ticking sound.

 

[DuckRyder]

it sounds to me like the tick is not every revolution which would point me to valve train.

Are these rollers? Did you see anything wrong with the lifters?

I know you probably don't want to hear it, but id say after your extensive exploratory surgery, its going to have to come out.

 

[Gyro Gearloose]

As one additional test, take all the sparkplugs out and crank it with no plugs to determine if it is a compression/air leak or mechanical action. If compression install plugs one at a time to find the cylinder.

 

[irad]

Fuel injector? Use a mechanics stethoscope to narrow down the location. Or touch each injector to feel for tapping.

 

[TheSavage4.7]

As one additional test, take all the sparkplugs out and crank it with no plugs to determine if it is a compression/air leak or mechanical action. If compression install plugs one at a time to find the cylinder.

Just did this.

Noise changed on Cyl #7 removing the spark plug from the engine and cranking it. There aren’t any exhaust bolts missing from the drivers side though.

 

[TheSavage4.7]

it sounds to me like the tick is not every revolution which would point me to valve train.

Are these rollers? Did you see anything wrong with the lifters?

I know you probably don't want to hear it, but id say after your extensive exploratory surgery, its going to have to come out.

I want to pull the engine to see it more in detail, but i can’t do it where im at due to ordinances (at least according to my neighbors.)

 

[TheSavage4.7]

Tick is coming from Cyl 7. If i listen closely to the engine even with running it without the plug i can tell that the tick is gone. This cylinder is also the cylinder that had the lowest compression of 135. Where do i go from now?