1994 Ranger valve rattle under load

[rwatford]

I just got a 94 Ranger from my uncle. The truck has a ton of miles on it, but runs pretty good. The problem I have is that it seems that the valves rattle badly under a load (pulling a hill or flooring it while in high gear). When I first got it, had a fuel line leak and I thought that might be the cause of the problem. Well I fixed the leaky line and it still rattles. I've change the fuel and air filter. I've cleaned the MAF sensor and I'm currently running some high octane boost in it.
Like I said it has a lot of miles on it, but it doesn't smoke, use or leak any oil. the truck sat idle for a couple of years only being cranked once a week or so. I'm really banging my head on this one. Thanks,,

 

[94b2300ranger]

My 94 b2300 was doing that I replaced the head and it went away

 

[super91(2.3)]

Flange on the bottom of the exhaust manifold makes the same exact noise. It my be loose or rusted thru. Check that before you go buying another was for possibly nothing.

 

[chilsam]

Carbon?

Sounds like detonation under load carbon build up is making hotspots "GLOWPLUGS" and turning your motor into a temp diesel.Try some seafoam worked on mine. Hope this helps!

 

[acole86]

Did you ever figure out what was causing it?????
I have a 93 Mustang with a 2.3 doing the exact same thing.

 

[upnsmoke]

Acole86, give us some information. What does it sound like, a ping or a valve/exhaust leak? How many miles on the motor? Has anything been done to it recently?

 

[acole86]

Well, I haven't had the car but maybe 2 months now. It ran fine for a month and a half then all of a sudden it sounded like I had a flat lifter under a load (sitting still it doesn't rattle at all). I just changed the tappets 3 weeks ago because the car sounded like a diesel all the time and the knew they were the originals. The new tappets made a world of difference but now I am wondering if one of them, when warmed up, is losing it's oil and causing this rattle & rough idle. New parts don't always mean good as I have had new parts fail before so it could be one of the new tappets.
So far I have changed the timing belt (the old one was really loose and god only knows how old it was) and put in a new ignition module as when I put a timing light to it the spark from both coils was very sporadic.
Think I've covered it all.

 

[acole86]

For those that might want to know, as it turns out it wasn't valves at all but a burned out head gasket between #1 & #2.