Are Older Ford 4.0 V-6 Motors Naturally Noisy?

[tc1446]

I have a 2000 Ford Ranger with the above motor; it has always been a noisy motor, making sounds somewhat like loud tappets, but only when you tromp the gas. A buddy long ago dubbed it "Old Growly". For the first couple years I drove it with Amsoil but then switched to a car and seldom drove the truck; maybe 1500 or so a year. At that point I went to conventional oil in the proper grade and changed once a year. Last year, I resumed driving the truck regularly and for a couple oil changes used Mobil 5000 conventional. The growling continued as it always had; I took this to be normal for these motors.

The last oil change a couple thousand ago, with only 55K on the truck, was with Pennzoil Ultra 5-30 that I had left over from a previous Toyota. Thought I'd use it up as I had no other vehicle to put it in.

Here is the punch line: The growling has gone away! I noticed shortly after putting the PU in that it seemed to slightly diminish, but thought it was totally my imagination. Now with a couple thou on the PU, the growling is almost completely gone.

I'm happy, but puzzled as well. Thoughts anyone?

 

[Lyman]

I have read that the noise was there on many of the 4.0 engines. When they first came out some of the engines were replaced under warranty due to being so noisy. The new ones were just as noisy as the old engines were. They quit replacing them after finding that the noise had no effect on engine longevity. Many have 200k plus miles on them and just keep on running. I have had good luck with 10w30 PHM myself.
Lots of information out there on this subject if you do an extensive web search.

 

[beechcraftted]

Are we talking about the SOHC or the pushrod version ? Both were used in the Ranger. I have found the SOHC to be quite noisy, the pushrod not so much.

 

[Rand]

The pushrod

The SOHC engine wasnt used in the ranger until later.
2001 or 2002

 

[SwampSurvivor]

All of the timing chains and extra bearings on the Ohc do make some noise.

I have heard a lot of the 4.0 v6 knocking from the bottom end. I always assumed it's a flex plate

 

[Kruse]

While I've owned a few Ford 4.0 push rod motors, I've never had one apart, so I'm just going by "hearsay".
It's my understanding that in the early years, especially when the 2.9 little brother was king, this was a mechanical lifter engine and the oil passages were small and barely lubricated the mechanical lifters. When they put in hydraulic lifters, the oil supply was barely adequate and the lifters were sometimes noisy.
Any truth to it? Some of the posters on the other forums seem to think so.

 

[Lyman]

The noisy 4.0s were made during the last three years of production. 98-2000.(push rod era engines) The noise does sound like the bottom end. I will try and find the article where I read about it. It is a well known issue but now a 15 year old issue so you don't hear about it very much anymore.

 

[Lyman]

This is a quote from another forum:

Piston slap

98-00 have short piston skirts causing a rattling noise at idle. Ford deemed this normal.

Mine does it, its worse after a fresh oil change.

 

[Ethan1]

I have one with 165k that I always run on whichever name brand synthetic. I don't notice any noise except for the whirring of the front end accessories at idle or the exhaust at WOT. Just recently swapped out the factory plugs and they didn't look bad

and my oil stays golden until 5k+ miles

 

[Merkava_4]

Originally Posted By: tc1446
I have a 2000 Ford Ranger with the above motor; it has always been a noisy motor, making sounds somewhat like loud tappets, but only when you tromp the gas. A buddy long ago dubbed it "Old Growly". For the first couple years I drove it with Amsoil but then switched to a car and seldom drove the truck; maybe 1500 or so a year. At that point I went to conventional oil in the proper grade and changed once a year. Last year, I resumed driving the truck regularly and for a couple oil changes used Mobil 5000 conventional. The growling continued as it always had; I took this to be normal for these motors.


Which viscosity grade were you running before switching to the proper grade?

 

[tc1446]

The noise on mine, that i referred to in the original post, is only heard when you really throw the gas to it, and lets up as soon as you ease up on the gas pedal. If it stays quiet using PU I'll continue to use it as it will still only be one oil change a year, no more than I drive.

 

[Garak]

I've driven a couple of the older ones back in the day, and they never struck me as overly quiet. It really didn't bother me, since as far as I'm concerned, if that's the way the engine family is, that's the way it is.

 

[tc1446]

Originally Posted By: Garak
I've driven a couple of the older ones back in the day, and they never struck me as overly quiet. It really didn't bother me, since as far as I'm concerned, if that's the way the engine family is, that's the way it is.


I agree, it doesn't bother me either. I was interested in finding out what produced the noise, presumably something to do with the push rods, and why/how a different, but high quality oil, might reduce the noise. Mainly curiosity as I am rather fond of "Ole Growly".