hey guys, i thought this would be useful for others with a bad tapping and knocking sound coming from their engine with the 5.4. I have a 2006 ford f150 5.4 with 57k miles on it. I had a bad knock/ steady tapping sound coming from what seemed to be the engine, 3 shops looked at it and said the it was coming from the engine, and the phasers and all that good stuff had to be replaced. I decided to look at the flange bolts on the up pipe that connects to the exhaust manifolds. the bolts on the drivers side were really loose, i tightened them back up and the truck is now was quite as a church mouse. Saved my self a lot of money. Just thought this would help others with this problem

 

Interesting! Thanks for the info!

 

When you were accelerating was it clicking? Like a click click sound?

 

pics?

 

yeah when i was accelerating you could hear the ticking sound coming from what seemed to be the engine. ill tell you what, the tap/knock was so bad it sounded like the engine had a bent rod, make sure you DEFFFF check the flange bolts before replacing cam phasers or any other internal engine components.

 

What really made me lead to checking the flange bolts was the exhaust odor i kept getting in my cab when i turned the heater on. Now that i tightened the bolts and engine is quite and the odor is completely gone. I'm so damn happy

 

Yeah when I turn my truck on also you can hear the constant ticking noise from the engine also leading out the exhaust

 

go underneath your truck and look up at the exhaust flanges on both sides of the motor, put a socket with an extension and a ratchet up the bolts and see if they are tight.