3.0 V6 knock

86markviilsc

86markviilsc

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Port Saint Lucie, Fl
'02 V6 manual 91,500 miles, last night cruising down the freeway, all of a sudden starts knocking. Made it home, only about 2 miles from my house when it started, checked the oil and it wasn't even showing on the dipstick. So, I did an oil change, close to needing one anyway, got no where near the 7 qts I should have, maybe 3-4 came out. It still sounds like there is a little man with a jackhammer trying to escape through the front cover, or possibly the passenger side valve cover:(. The noise changes with engine speed, some of you from LLSOC may know my dad, he worked for Ford on the LS program on the 5r55N and he thinks it's probably an oil starved tensioner that came apart.
 
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86markviilsc said:
'02 V6 manual 91,500 miles, last night cruising down the freeway, all of a sudden starts knocking. Made it home, only about 2 miles from my house when it started, checked the oil and it wasn't even showing on the dipstick. So, I did an oil change, close to needing one anyway, got no where near the 7 qts I should have, maybe 3-4 came out. It still sounds like there is a little man with a jackhammer trying to escape through the front cover, or possibly the passenger side valve cover:(. The noise changes with engine speed, some of you from LLSOC may know my dad, he worked for Ford on the LS program on the 5r55N and he thinks it's probably an oil starved tensioner that came apart.
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Ahhh.... Mark K.? Mr. Firetruck? He posted on LLSOC. Here's my response from there:

My only input is that my old 2000 V6 has, last I checked, just over 182K and still uses no oil. I take out what I put in; minus the filter of course.

Does he smell burning oil when driving? I did have to have the valve cover gaskets replaced around that mileage as they were leaking. Were it getting past the rings wouldn't one smell it in the exhaust? Wouldn't it also smoke?
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Yep, that's him. So I got the passenger valve cover off, everything looks good in there, what I can see of the tensioner is intact, I'm about to go out and take the driver side off, too. The plug wells are dry, though on occasion I do smell a bit of burned oil, though I always attributed it to some one ahead of me. I'm not really worried so much about the oil loss as I am about the jackhammer inside my engine.
 
My mom had a 02 Escape with the 3.0 (not sure there's much difference). At about 87k miles it developed a bottom end knock. Had only a couple qts of oil in it. She wasn't due for an oil change for another 100 miles or so. No visible oil leaks either. Sounds eerily similar to your situation.
 
stugots said:
Yes it needed a new engine. She traded it in.
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Fantastic..... There are a few reasons why I won't trade it,
1. I love the car too much
2. I owe more than its worth

So, I got the other valve cover off, and the passenger side has some play in the chain, where as the driver side has NO play at all. I put the intake back on and ran it without the covers just to see if I could spot something obvious, but the noise is way lower. So, tomorrow I'm gonna pull the front cover off. Also, since the oil change it seems like the knocking only happens over idle speed, however, it wasn't idling well due to many unplugged sensors and whatnot. I'm beginning to think I might need some bearings...
 
If it is lower (like your dad posted) it may very well be a bearing. The tensioner should be tight; the looseness may have been caused by oil starvation. It sounds like you still need at least a tensioner. Sound is a funny thing; It can sound like it's coming from one place when it is actually coming from somewhere totally different. The timing chain could be flapping at the crank making it sound like a bearing.
 
Don't know if anybody even is reading this or cares, but managed to get the front cover off and everything is intact and looks fine. So We dug deeper, Got the oil pan mostly off and took the oil pump pick up off, and found what looks to be remnants of a bearing. So, I inquired to a nearby junkyard on a '02 LS V6 with 79k.
 
86markviilsc said:
Don't know if anybody even is reading this or cares, but managed to get the front cover off and everything is intact and looks fine. So We dug deeper, Got the oil pan mostly off and took the oil pump pick up off, and found what looks to be remnants of a bearing. So, I inquired to a nearby junkyard on a '02 LS V6 with 79k.
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I read your dad said you had one or more spun bearings and those remnants were the remains of a bearing. Sorry to hear that!! Did you guys discover where the oil went? I had my daughter check her oil and apparently it's been quite a while since she changed it last. The oil barely registered on the dipstick. Tomorrow........ Oil change!
 
There was no obvious oil leak or logical place for the oil to have gone, so I suppose it was burning it. I've certainly learned a lesson, I never really checked the oil, I never saw any leaks, I never smelled burned oil, I just assumed it was OK. Never again will I do that! Just for fun and possibly learning experience, I want to tear down the old engine and find out what was going on.
 
86markviilsc said:
There was no obvious oil leak or logical place for the oil to have gone, so I suppose it was burning it. I've certainly learned a lesson, I never really checked the oil, I never saw any leaks, I never smelled burned oil, I just assumed it was OK. Never again will I do that! Just for fun and possibly learning experience, I want to tear down the old engine and find out what was going on.
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If you do, please post your findings! And have your dad do so at LLSOC, PLEASE!
 
I'm very interested in what happened because it does sound very similar to my mother's situation. We never took the time to have it tore down, I figured it was a bearing(s).

We just assumed maybe the wrong amount of oil was put in at the last change creating a situation where it would burn oil at a fast rate. It was relatively low mileage, the dealer gave us the runaround. My parents no longer own fomoco vehicles anymore.
 
Well........ It looks like she may have a leak somewhere. As she is too lazy to get her engine bay steam cleaned I guess she will actually have to keep a much, much better eye on the level; OR, she can actually get the engine bay cleaned and we can find the leak! HOPEFULLY, this will have been a wake up call to her to be a little more conscientious!

I guess the good thing is the oil light never illuminated so the engine didn't starve.....
 
so, this is what I have been dealing with, almost ready to come out.
313okxt.jpg
 
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