Clattery 2.3

[Mightyfordranger]

Its been awhile since i have last been on here but its good to see the place is still going and looking better than ever!! Anyway my dd 88 2wd ranger with a 2.3 is making some very angry noises. But its only does it around 2000 to 2500 rpm. I kind of sounds like a lose rocker arm rattle its weird i cant quite pin point the origin

 

[RangerFabWorks]

Take a wooden handle and start placing it against different areas of the engine. Then lay your ear on the wood. This will magnify the sound and help you narrow down the area it’s coming from.

But this is just my opinion. Linda like a main rattle to me. Rev the engine quickly. Try to get it to “free wheel” .......on deceleration if you hear a rattle then you have a main bearing noise.

 

[Mightyfordranger]

No this only rattles when u hold it at like 2200 rpm once higher then that it stops and lower than that it stops its weird and ill try the wood handle trick

 

[tomw]

Crawl under the cab on the passenger side. Inspect the catalytic converter heat shields. They are tack-welded onto the converter. The welds can break, and allow the shields to rattle at specific rpms. It's been so long since I did mine, I forget how many welds were broken, but it was more than one.
I got some stainless screw-type clamps at Home Depot, connected the head of one to the tail of another to get enough length(measure, I had way too much) to go around the shields. I used two pairs, and clamped towards the front and towards the rear. Still there after all these years. No more ratttle, and you can tighten if they start to rattle again. Cheap too.
Other than that, if it's under hood, check the heat 'stove' on the exhaust that provides heated air to the intake for cold weather operation. Any other thing that rattled at specific rpms would either be internal(not likely) or on the nose, being belt-operated. The fan could be wobbly on the water pump, or the fan clutch starting to fail.
tom