99 V6 cougar engine rattle?? i'm a newbie too ;)
 

Hi all.
firstly, i'm a duratec newb.....but damn what a motor :) first ford v6. she's a good looking girl in silver. 17inch wolfrace 225/45's on. for the first 100 miles of driving ( including the test drive) i noticed nothing wrong. but......................
when the engine starts to warm up i get a rattle, that sounds like metal clanging together(obv mick taking now allowed!) that speeds up or slows depending on the revs, irrelevent of being in gear or not. to be honest it just sounds like the exhaust has just gone, but dont think it is, if you get me. lol. it has a twin 4 inch oval exit fitted btw. the noise can only last for a couple of minutes or ten miles ish then dissappears. also under full throttle it goes away in all the rev band straight away. any ideas?? comes from the front of car, but not sure if its above or below the engine. once the engine is up to temp i get no more noise. gonna post pics of my new baby, ( named her betty) get it?
any advice will be lovingly taken and thanks issued forthwith!!!!

Are you sure it's not the tappets?

Martin

most of the time there is no noise. it only starts for a short while when warming up, so i'd not have thought tappets, thought them going would mean a constant "tapping". the noise is more like exhaust blow, or heat shield rattling, that kind of thing. i'll get under it and have a look, but not a mechanic lol, so anything from cams downwards i'm not sure on.

there is several things it could be:

- timing chain rattle
- blowing exhaust manifold gasket
- cracked exhaust manifold
- or it could be the "tick of death" meaning the head gasket and bottom end are on its way (which is quite common with these engines).

hopefully it isnt a serious prob, but if it is you are better off swapping a second hand engine in becuase they cost silly money to strip down and refurb. as a guideline i know someone who did the headgaskets on a duratec v6 himself, and it cost over £800 in parts, head skims etc

had this on a few cars at work but getting more and more common these days with the flexi hoses collapsing inside and locking the calipers on. mostly on fords vauxhalls and renaults

my money is on the timing chain :poke:

my money is on this toipc being 4 years old and now either killed or cured