The dreaded "head tick" lives on.....

[bbrence]

The September issue of Road & Track has a strange piece on the 1876 James/Younger gang and a new Shelby GT500 convertible. The review of the car is mixed at best. When describing the convertible's diminished performance versus the coupe, they say, and I quote: "We think our test car's supercharged 5.4L V-8 was a tad soft.....a suspicion enhanced by a nasty ticking noise coming from the engine."

Hmmmmmmm, sounds like all current Ford DOHC engines have the potential to suffer from the dreaded tick. Having the engine of a $35,000 SVT Cobra ticking like a $500 junker, is bad enough......what if you spent $150,000 plus for your Ford GT.....or $50,000 plus for a GT500 convertible???

Ford needs to figure out what the hell is wrong and fix the %^$#(*&^ things!!

[bbrence]

Hmmmmmmm, I guess nobody cares.

[mrpork]

well i have an 04 vert an i dont have a ticking noise i have around 18000 on her now how many miles do you have on yours

[cobrabitn]

I think the tick is sporadic so some may have it and some may not!

[COBRAkid]

the kind of gas that you use has a lot to do with it.... i have found that Sunoco gas around my area is the best to use and its cheaper than most places i go to for premium

[Terminator X]

Wasn't this tick associated with the 03's? Or was it 03's and early 04"s?

[mrpork]

spoke to soon have head tick on start up

[Terminator X]

spoke to soon have head tick on start up
GTFOOH! What's your build number?

[mrpork]

my vehicle is #978 out of 1896 according to my svt certificate

[bbrence]

My car is an early 04.....#132 of 3768.

The tick seems to occur in Ford DOHC 4.6 & 5.4 engines pretty much accross the board. I guess it was more common in early 03 Cobras.....but still happens in later cars. I doubt the gasoline used has anything to do with it. As long as you use high quality [Chevron, Shell, Arco, etc] premium unleaded gas. I doubt that the oil you use has anything to do with it, as long as you use good quality oil [& filter] and change it at recommended intervals.

It occured in my car, with a nearly bone stock engine, at about 7,800 miles and I do not abuse the car in any way.......don't over-rev or lug it. In my car, Ford elected to replace the driver's side head. Ford has also agreed to give me a 75,000 warranty on the engine.

It is a puzzling issue. The tick is quite common, but it doesn't appear to occur in every car. Also strange that Ford would replace the entire head, rather than fixing the part making the noise. Some cars have it on start-up......my car "ticked" only when warm.

[mrpork]

i just got off the phone with a SVT tech. i asked him about the tick. :thumbsup: he said THAT ONLY IN THE EARLY EARLY 03 DID IT HAPPEN THAT AN 04 IT WILL NOT HAPPEN AS OF NOW THEIR IS NO BULLETIN ON IT. SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE. SOME CARS WILL GET HEADS AND OTHERS WONT:eek: . OR IS IT UP TO THE DEALER IF SO YOU BETTER BE NICE TO THE DEALER

[ausie]

I may drive my car hard at times but I normally do not over do it. I have also taken it down the quarter mile about 30 times since I have owned it. At every start up when the motor is cold I give it 5 minutes of warm up time before driving it. On rare occasions I may hear a slight bit of piston slap a minute after start up but that is normal. Only once did I hear a loud tick or tapping comming from the engine (seemed to emminate from the passenger side head). I immediately shut down the motor, went out and bought some motor flush and added that to the crank case. Within the 10 minute run time of the motor the noise had stopped. Then followed that with an oil change. Have not heard it return yet. I think that was about 6k miles or more ago.

From what I recall about the dreaded head tick was caused by a design flaw in the in the coolant passages in the heads The revised heads do not have the same cooling passage issues so the tick may be something else probably valve train related. :rolleyes:

[mrpork]

what type of oil do you use

[ausie]

what type of oil do you use
I use AMSOIL series 2000 racing oil 20w-50 or Royal Purple 10w-30. When I heard the noise I had used something else Lucas synthetic oil 10w-30. I do not believe it was the oil that caused the noise. I also used an oil additive which what I thought was the lucas pure synthetic oil stabilizer but it turned out I got the wrong additive which was the tacky oil stuff (Heavy duty oil stabilizer, bottle looks almost the same). After 500 miles, tick, tick, tick and I dumped the oil immediately before any more issues would be created (probably too late but so far no tick or noises from the heads). I have used the lucas pure synthetic oil stabilizer (only a few ounces at a time) without any problems. I tried that stuff while I had the air/oil separator on the car and noticed that the canister did not fill up with oil. I would not recommend the lucas heavy duty oil stabilizer since that will thicken the oil and may cause problems. However the lucas pure syntetic oil stabilizer is a good product if used sparingly. Actually any oil additive is not necessary since most motor oils are loaded with additives to start with.

[jeffS.]

I own an 04 cobra and there does seem to be a little valvetrain noise, I've also noticed it on a 04 Mach-1 that I test drove before settling on the cobra. I'm guessing it's definately a 4 valve thing, although mine did it brand new and also does it now. I don't worry about it, and it doesn't get any worse hot- cold ,new- old, maybe cause I've gotten used to my 63 1/2 galaxie with the solid liftered 427 over the years. Run it hard and show it who's boss.