Ticking noise

A 2007 Town car has a 4.6l 2V engine. There are no lifters in that engine.
Cam followers and lash adjusters.

The modular engine is a louder engine than most.
To determine if there are issue, get a piece of hose or spend $ on a mechanics stethoscope and probe for the sound when the engine is running.

More wear will occur in teh fround with the chains and guides than in the valve train and cam. Not that it isn't possible.

Using a heavier weight oil is not recommened especially on cold starts when most wear occurs. However more wear usually occurs from extending the oil & filter chnages.

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Freeman said:
Guys, I suspect that my hydraulic lifters are knocking. no one is ticking, but the sound comes from all and looks like a grasshopper chirping or something like that. I have a 2007 town car. Can this engine really react like that to an oil change from 5w20 to 5w30? The first thing I'm going to do is change the oil filter.
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Could it be that I hear the sound of injectors and because of my suspiciousness it seems to me that these are valve lifters?
A stethoscope is a good idea!
 
Injectors will make a ticking sound of sorts.

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And there is a distinct difference!

Fuel Injectors and bombs may make a ticking sound that is similar.
However a good working fuel injector ticks on for a very very long time. And is rather boring.
A good bomb has a limited amount of ticks, followed by a bit of excitement.

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They lash adjusters as they are called are hydraulic. I suspect they can make noise similar to a hydraulic lifter with some age on them.
Pretty sure one or more of mine take a moment to pump up on cold start, worse in winter, goes away pretty quickly but it's ambient temp
dependant how long it takes. Very different noise than a broken chain guide, been there fixed that. I've been told these motors can have piston slap when cold but what I suspect is a lash adjuster noise on mine is too tick-ey a noise to be that imo. I try to let it hush up before I set off and otherwise ignore it.
 
Freeman said:
Guys, I suspect that my hydraulic lifters are knocking. no one is ticking, but the sound comes from all and looks like a grasshopper chirping or something like that. I have a 2007 town car. Can this engine really react like that to an oil change from 5w20 to 5w30? The first thing I'm going to do is change the oil filter.
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When you change the oil you're supposed to change the oil filter at the same time.

The recommended oil is 5w20. If you switched to 5w30 and you hear a tick then there's your sign to change it back to 5w20
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We've previously established that the 4.6 2v started with 5w30 and was only moved to 5w20, by official ford printed admission when the switch occurred, solely for fuel mileage gains.
I posted the relevant ford bulletin here somewhere not too long ago, it's a common misconception.
 
wolf_walker said:
We've previously established that the 4.6 2v started with 5w30 and was only moved to 5w20, by official ford printed admission when the switch occurred, solely for fuel mileage gains.
I posted the relevant ford bulletin here somewhere not too long ago, it's a common misconception.
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IT may be a "misconception" to some but Ford recommended it for a reason.

(y)
 
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The 2002 TSB reference only addresses vehicles up to model year 2002.
All 1997 to 2002 Town Cars have a recommended of oil weight of 5W20
The exceptions to that TSB are listed and DO NOT include any modular engines.
The modular engine family going forward from that 2002 model year all have a recommendation of 5W20 weight oil.

True 5W30 helps the company achieve CAFE standards. And the modular engine family (and other engine families) was built to a more consistent and tighter standard. 3V modular engines (not in Town Car or other Panther platform) will have issues in certain circumstances with 5W30.

Ford recommends 5W20 in these engines.
Does the 5W30 cause the engine sound the OP is hearing? In my guess - no. I am wondering if the OP never heard the sound before and is hearing it now. It is difficult to assess because none of us are there.

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Prior to the TSB they were all 5w30, the TSB suggested going to 5w20 for fuel economy gains with the exception of a few models that I assume they identified an issue with. Neither weight will harm a single cam 4.6 in the short or long term, and I deduce from the sole stated reason of the change being fuel economy gains that 5w30 was the preferred weight by the manufacturer when CAFE was not a factor or before 5w20 was widely available
so in the absolute least it's perfectly acceptable and at best preferable, unless you're trying to make money for Ford. I'm fairly confident that if they'd had any other reason for the change they would have said so, or not said at all. I stick with the originally suggested 5w30 myself on high mileage motors that likely don't have as tight a clearances as they once did, fuel economy is no more than a passing amusement in these cars to me.

I have also seen, though I don't have a reference handy, post 2002 models with a 5w30 label on them that were sold in very hot climates where oil temps would tend to be high and thinner. There are also Town Car's with premium fuel requirement stickers from the factory, which is another topic of much discussion.

OP with the noise should make sure his oil filter has a good anti-drainback valve, Motorcraft are cheap and plentiful.
Be sure it's not an exhaust leak while cold, run it with the serpentine belt off to eliminate accessory noise, use a screwdriver or
mechanics stethoscope to check for overly noisy injectors, failing any of that it's either a noisy "lifter" or something amiss in the timing chain
area.
 
It may be acceptable to use a different weight. It is not preferable. The word preference is not in the TSB. Nor is it in any publicatuion. The TSB states recommended oil. It was not a suggestion.
The word Recommended is in the title and used throughout the entire TSB
All owners manuals from model year 2003 and forward for Town Cars recommend 5W20 weight oil. That is the only recommended oil weight. Not sure why you want to revise that.
Prior to model year 2003 the recommended oil weight may have been 10w30. This TSB revises that previous recommendation for the models and engines listed.
The subject vehcile is a model year 2007 Lincoln Town Car with a 4.6l engine. The recomemnded oil weight in the owners manual is 5W20. The owners manual is found here
On page 282 and 283 Ford recommends ONLY 5W20. No other weight oil, under no other conditions.

I would question the statement about "sticker" on vehicles used in hot climates. (Not many places hotter than than Phoenix Arizona - my location. There is no exception by Ford for hotter locations) Here is the 2003 Town Car owners manual.
Page 257 states the recommended oil is 5W20. There is no notation as to ambient temps.

I work in the banking industry not the automotive industry. I have no financial intersest in what oil is used in any vehicle at all. I am just stating what is published by Ford Motor Company. So I am only stating what Ford recommends based on their publications. Not my opinion or something I am guessing on. It is in writing!

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I use 5w to 10w30 conventional in the summer for about 6 months( 2 oil & filter changes), usually a Walmart filter or Motorcraft FL820S if available, depending on price, the other 6 months(2 oil and filter changes) I'm at 5w20 syn blend or 5w30 full syn, and again... This is based on price alone, been doing it this way for 4 years now and my Town Car don't care what's in it, no ticks, knocks, pings,.... as long as there's something fresh in it is all she cares about.
 
Action said:
It may be acceptable to use a different weight. It is not preferable. The word preference is not in the TSB. Nor is it in any publicatuion. The TSB states recommended oil. It was not a suggestion.
The word Recommended is in the title and used throughout the entire TSB
All owners manuals from model year 2003 and forward for Town Cars recommend 5W20 weight oil. That is the only recommended oil weight. Not sure why you want to revise that.
Prior to model year 2003 the recommended oil weight may have been 10w30. This TSB revises that previous recommendation for the models and engines listed.
The subject vehcile is a model year 2007 Lincoln Town Car with a 4.6l engine. The recomemnded oil weight in the owners manual is 5W20. The owners manual is found here
On page 282 and 283 Ford recommends ONLY 5W20. No other weight oil, under no other conditions.

I would question the statement about "sticker" on vehicles used in hot climates. (Not many places hotter than than Phoenix Arizona - my location. There is no exception by Ford for hotter locations) Here is the 2003 Town Car owners manual.
Page 257 states the recommended oil is 5W20. There is no notation as to ambient temps.

I work in the banking industry not the automotive industry. I have no financial intersest in what oil is used in any vehicle at all. I am just stating what is published by Ford Motor Company. So I am only stating what Ford recommends based on their publications. Not my opinion or something I am guessing on. It is in writing!

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I see exactly why they changed oil weights (they aren't the only manufacturer to do this) and if MPG is your goal then it should be followed. If not then I would follow what the original specification was. Which is 5w30.

The engine did not change, the requirements of the average fuel mileage across all the many vehicles Ford produced did, that is the reason for the change. It is stated in black and white straight from the horses mouth. There is no debate, there is no argument, there are no two ways about it.
Ford has told us the only reason for the change, that's why it was a recommendation and not a requirement. Otherwise they would have been admitting they choose the wrong weight oil for the engine for the first five years of its use or so, and that is not the case.

Ford designed the engine to use 5w30 and some years later decided they would at the least make it out of warranty (which to be clear is all they care about) with a thinner oil that would increase the average fuel economy across the fleet. One does not need to be a mechanical engineer or chemist or anything other than having spun wrenches and dealt with automotive corporations/manufacturers for a few decades to see what's going on there. I can absolutely understand not being comfortable doing anything other than what is said by the powers that be if you don't understand the how's and why's of it all, but from a technical standpoint it's very clear what went on, and why.

And even further that, if you spend some time reviewing oil analysis from various weights/brands you'll start to think that maybe the weight suggestions would only apply to genuine motorcraft brand oil, since it can vary quite a lot from one brand/formula to another. You can have a light 5w30 from one manufacturer that is closer to the 5w20 of another, or a heavy 5w20 that is closer to the 5w30 of another, and you'd need to compare whatever you're running to some lab checked samples of fords offering to see where you actually stand, or you don't really know what you're using anyway. I've been down these roads a lot of times with a lot of things and fortunately with this motor, you can dump about anything in the 5w20/30 range in there and it will be perfectly fine. There have been HUGE numbers of people that have run plain old 10w30 since that's what was common back then, I've seen guys with big mileage running 20w50 with seemingly no ill effects (though I don't recommend it), so it's somewhat of a moot point in practice. But I like to understand things, just being told "do this instead" with no explanation is not sufficient.
So I went and found the answer.


5w30 is what it was designed for, and I have a wee bit more trust for the engineers than I do for whatever accountant type whose job it was to get the CAFE rating over a certain number for 2002. This is also the company that sold an SUV that killed hundreds of people because they didn't notice the tires sucked at about the same time the 4.6 debuted. Question everything.
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Norms1stTC said:
I use 5w to 10w30 conventional in the summer for about 6 months( 2 oil & filter changes), usually a Walmart filter or Motorcraft FL820S if available, depending on price, the other 6 months(2 oil and filter changes) I'm at 5w20 syn blend or 5w30 full syn, and again... This is based on price alone, been doing it this way for 4 years now and my Town Car don't care what's in it, no ticks, knocks, pings,.... as long as there's something fresh in it is all she cares about.
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And the ole car will likely outlast you doing just that. They all seem to need timing guides every 200-250K but what do you want from plastic I guess, otherwise actual hard failures in normal use are pretty darn rare.
 
Great discussion. I was looking for this in another topic too, but here, in the discussion, "wolf_walker" outlined concepts with which I also agree.
As I imagine it, Ford was hinted: - "Guys, you need to at least pretend that you are concerned about the environment and environmental pollution." To which Ford, thinking that his engines on 5w20 oil would also run many times more than the warranty, easily went for it and gave an authoritative recommendation - 5w20!
I will quote a professor from a reputable technical university about modular engines. Here is what he says: "The module is a basic set of unified parts: a cylinder block and head, a crank mechanism, a cylinder-piston group. These are the most expensive structural elements in development and production. Based on the tasks, retrofitting the finished base with additional systems, you can get new modifications: shift the focus in favor of a resource or power. It's a matter of fine tuning."
These fine adjustments were carried out by Ford. Ford also motivates this by saving our money on fuel. Some people follow the instructions. Others want to choose the best engine protection.
 
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Rstredway said:
After my engine warms up I’m getting a quiet ticking noise from the engine it sounds like it’s coming from the top of the engine I can’t tell if it’s a lifter or the fuel injectors it rides great and when I’m driving it goes away it does it worst at idle it’s not very loud but if you don’t have the radio on or no other noises going on you can hear it. It is a 2007 town car.
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I have a ton of experience with the 4.6 engine from stock to highly modified. A lot of the time you are hearing the fuel injectors clicking/opening and closing. They also are known for having the infamous valve tick, this is something that happens with new 4.6 engines, high mileage, and even with high dollar valvetrain. If it is not obnoxiously loud, it is nothing to worry about. Ride on and cruise.
 
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