I Just Recently Bought A 2006 F-150 4x4 W/5.4l Triton And Noticed A Constant Ticking Noise Coming From Under Both Valve Covers. I Know A Slight Ticking Noise Is Normal, But This Seems A Little Louder Than Normal. The Truck Has 40,000 Miles On It, The Oil Is Fresh And The Level Is Fine. I Haven't Noticed Any Oil Or Coolant Leaks. I'm Learning This New Engine And Looking For Tips And Advise.

 

Welcome to the forum. I think ohter guys in here can tell you more about this engine, but i'll start with what i'm thinking. My guess is that there is a free play between valve pushing rockers and valves. I'm not sure how exactly valve pushing is realised in your engine, but generally there are 2 options - it may contain hidraulic free play compensators or it may have some adjusting nuts. In case of compensators you'll need to replace them (all of them), and in other case you'll need to perform a valves free play adjustment.

 

Or it's most likely your cam chain tensioners or something in your cam phasers assy. causing them to malfunction.

 

Isn't this the noise everyone hears before they have a spark plug ejected?

 

plug ejections arent an issue with the 3V 5.4L. Not being able to get them out is....

 

Could be injectors too. From what I understand, its not uncommon for the injectors to give you a ticking noise.

 

thanks for the advice. i'll take every suggestion into consideration and now i have some troubleshooting ideas for the future. but for now I'm going to stop running cheap 87 octane gas in my engine and use shell or chevron for a while, also maybe synthetic oil. i wanna try my luck this way first before i tear into an engine with such low miles. anybody disagree?