Today while driving my engine started ticking bad especially when I get above 2000 rpms. It has the common tick on start up but this one is really annoying. Has 148k miles.
Is it lifter noise? 02 Wrangler 4.0
- Thread starter tristan6555
- Start date
Could be your exhaust manifolds. Those can tick loud, especially under load. They tend to start when cold and stop when warmed up as the header/manifold heats up, expands, and seals the leak. Or vice versa. Gaskets are cheaper than a valve job. AFAIK lifter tick is usually apparent at idle too. Have someone rev it while you use a stethoscope and go cylinder by cylinder to find the culprit. You may be able to pull plug wires one a at a time and see if the tick changes on any particular one and see if any cause a change. Does pulling power from a specific cylinder cause the tick to get quieter? Louder? Disappear? Change nothing? Does removing the belt cause the tick to go away?
This usually works for bottom end noises, valvetrain noise may be a bit of a different ball game. Make sure you're not getting spark jump either. Loose spark plug wires or a failing cap/rotor can make funny ticking noises when the spark is arcing.
Either way, I have no idea what this sound is. I can't hear it from 300 miles away. Always post the sound on YouTube and link it to a forum, what is a tick to YOU might be a knock to me, and a tap or even detonation to someone else. We're kinda blind here.
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Almost guaranteed you went from cracked piston skirts to a broken skirt. I would drop the oil pan and see if there are pieces of the skirt in the pan. If you do have a broken skirt, you risk destroying the cylinder.
I feel pretty confident its not manifolds. I will get a video uploaded by tomorrow. It definitely has an obvious tick at idle but doesnt sound like a typical blown engine.
You could always do a compression / leak down test to rule it out.
Ticking is generally an exhaust leak, lifter tick / valve noise, or something worse as mentioned above, such as rod knock or a broken skirt.
I would do a compression test just to make sure you don't potentially do any further damage if that is the case.
I sure hope this isnt the case lol. Wonder what this would set me back. I feel confident in doing an engine swap but ive never tore into one.
Yeah, that's not a tick. That's more of a tap or a light knock. Time for a stethoscope and narrowing it down to at least which cylinder. (if any)
Yeah, not a good noise. If you listen carefully past the rapping you can hear piston slap from one or more cylinders. Usually the main bearings don't go bad, so if it's not a broken skirt it's probably either a wrist pin about to go or a bad rod bearing. Compression test probably won't reveal much. If you can get a mechanical oil pressure gauge on there that will help determine what might be going on.
I checked compression and lowest reading I got out of all of them was 110. Ill pull the valve cover tomorrow then the oil pan.
If you decide to repair the engine, make sure you do all 6 pistons. Guaranteed there are more not far behind that one.
Yes it is, only had the Jeep a month and had less than 150k miles. Thought i could at least get close to 300k. I had 2 cherokees with over 250k and I treated them like crap before I got rid of them. I was babying this thing.
I decided to buy sealed power pistons, rod bearings and rings from summit racing. I had a local machine shop with good reviews change the rods over and check the head. My head ended up being warped and needed to be decked and needed a valve job. For rings I went with a set that had a moly top ring as it doesn't need a rough honing to seat. I decided not to hone my cylinders as I felt there was no way to clean all the honing grit out of the engine. I now have about 1500 miles on the engine and it feels like I got a good seat on all the rings. When I can find the time I do plan to do a compression test and post the results to my rebuild thread.
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