Help quick

[hr223shooter07]

Alright, I am looking at a 94 ranger, it has the 4.0 v-6...im sure its on here, but i am at school and don't have a whole lot of time, I may buy it after class but it has the infamous 4.0L tick, I know its not rod knock because it wasn't really loud and aggressive, but it sounded like it was coming from the top end and you could hear it when you accelerated....about 122,000 miles, and that was the only problem i could find....is it serious or no? will it hurt anything?

 

[90rangersuper]

i have had my ranger for 2 years now and it has had the tick since i bought it, as always, regular oil changes, mine is a 90 ranger 4x4 4.0 with 161k on it

 

[Explorin94]

Bought mine with 72,xxx with a tick and at 335,674 still ticking!

 

[mhughes165]

ive affenctionaly come to know that tick as the ranger tick, 2.9's are more notorious for it, but 4.0's have been known todo it aswell

 

[MAKG]

ive affenctionaly come to know that tick as the ranger tick, 2.9's are more notorious for it, but 4.0's have been known todo it aswell

But for wildly different reasons.

Anything in the valvetrain can tick at cam rate, and any mild looseness in the bottom end can tick at crank rate. People have a habit of calling every ticking noise a tapping lifter. Though 2.9Ls do have lifter oiling troubles (due to cam bearing wear), there are several other ticks they can develop, most frequently from one or more fuel injectors. 4.0Ls often have spalled rockers. But not always.

The way to tell these apart is to describe the conditions under which it happens and how it changes. Rocker tick is generally always there, speeding up with RPM but not varying volume much (except at really high RPM where the pushrods may jangle). Piston slap, for instance, will be much worse on a cold engine than one that has been warmed even for less than a minute. Excessive endplay noises go away when the clutch is released. Loose wrist pins and rod bearings respond to engine load. And so on.

 

[hr223shooter07]

I didn't end up getting it, but I still like knowing about this 2 out of the 4 rangers that I have looked at had this...this one was the loudest though, it was there at idle, increased with rpms, it was noticable when going down the road...but not really at higher rpms, it increased in speed with rpms but stayed the same decibal level, it was mainly coming from the passenger side, it had a 3" b.l. but was coming between the fender and frame rail...it sounded like something was loose though..im pretty sure it wasn't rod knock because it didn't sound like it was a hammer beating on anything...but who knows....he was asking 3700 for it, and it had a lot of rust, nothing rusted though, but a lot of little stupid problems that needed work...i figure it was worht about 3