Good News Then Bad News...

[krs]

All,

Per previous posts and queries, I successfully put a Tarus 3.0 engine into my 98 Ranger, and it HAD been running very well for ... - about 3 weeks. After that period, I let my 17 year-old son start driving it.

Maybe by coincidence or maybe not - my son went to start it a couple days ago, and the truck now makes this very obnoxious noise - kind of sounds like a piece of metal randomly bouncing around in a metal cage! I took off the fan belt and briefly started it and noise is still there, meaning it is not coming from the AC compressor, alternator, etc.

I am not even sure where to start looking - any ideas?

Regards,
Kevin

 

[triumphrider-1]

Does it sound like lifters, or lower in the engine?

 

[McCormack]

Just to eliminate the obvious, check the exhaust system for rattles, and pay particular attention to the catalytic converter heat shields.

 

[krs]

Thanks for the ideas - will do some looking in the next few days...

 

[krs]

Looked at it a bit on Saturday, and determined it was coming from the flexplate area. I opened up the little window and had my son rotate the engine. The bolts were there, and did not see any damage to the flexplate.

Looked at it a bit today, and started thinking it was the catalytic converter. My brother-in-law then heard the noise travel through the exhaust system, and now there is no strange noise at all!

I suppose something "broke loose" and was bouncing around in the catalytic converter???

 

[McCormack]

Cat insides rattling = very possible.

 

[Ditchbanger]

The same thing happened to me. My exhaust was loose where it bolted up to my cats.