Mustangmaster

I took it to my local mechanic. His first test was right on the money. He said the spark plugs back out and the ticking is from exhaust leaking through the spark plug threads. Sure enough 2 of them on the drivers side were loose. He said if they are loose long enough and back out far enough the head threads would get ruined. He also said there is a kit to fix it that fixes it about 75% of the time but, not always. So, if you have engine ticking, check to see if your spark plugs are loose!

riskyfool

Wow - that is very interesting. I would think you must have recaptured some compression too, and possibly some spark timing. Notice any improvement in power?

Mustangmaster

Not really any power improvement. The only thing I have noticed is when the ticking was going on, my initial take of from 0 mph, there was a hesitation. It now seems to be gone.

Derf00

That seems really odd...

Have you ever tinkered with your spark plugs, like checked them and them put them back in? Maybe you didnt torque them down correctly or you had dirt on the taper seat.

A lot people can't get the things to come out in one piece let alone get them to back out without some force.(4.6L 2-piece spark plug design)

Mustangmaster

No, I haven't tinkered with them but, I watched the mechanic do this right in front of my eyes. He told me the last plugs he put in my car are not the 2 piece design. Now that I know the problem, I am going to go buy the long neck spark plug socket. I believe I heard him say today it was a 15.

One other thing I hadn't mentioned. When he pulled the coil pack off, it had a lot of brown down around the bottom half of the rubber. He said that is the exhaust that is leaking out around the plug threads.

AzPete

So, were these plugs that were loose installed by this mechanic prior to being loose?

Mustangmaster

Yes, the same mechanic installed them about 40,000 miles ago.

SilverHoss

Bingo.

AzPete

Sounds like more of a poor quality job to begin with vs a problem with the car/engine. I believe there is a torque value on the plugs also.

Mustangmaster

Sure, it's very possible that this mechanic didn't torque them to spec. The main reason I started this thread was to let others know what could be causing an engine tick and ended up being my engine tick problem.