Hey all ! Jack here i have a 2004 ford ranger Edge with the 3L in it and i love it! But when i drive UNDER LOAD at around 2500-3500 rpm i hear a wicked rattle. sounds to me like the rockers are loose, but it will only do it under load. It will only last for a few seconds. try to get it to do it at idle but it will not do it. Any ideas ? It was burning oil but i switched it to 10w-30 Synthetic and it only burns after around 4-5k on that only change. will NOT burn a drop of oil till then. I was thinking of taking the valve covers off and see if i can adjust the rocker but i want to get a few opinion on it first, and i have a funny feeling your cant adjust em.
Cheers Jack!

 

Sounds like spark knock/pinging. If the truck is flex fuel, try running a couple tanks of E-85 through it.

 

Truck does not have flex fuel. But it could be the injectors...

 

I doubt the injectors are bad. I was suggesting using E-85 because it's a great fuel system cleaner and cleans the combustion chambers well.

Seafoam the truck and see if that improves the pinging problem.

 

i have a similar issue thats been going on as long as I've owned the truck (since Jan last year). Mine is also an '04 edge. Drove me crazy for the first few months, and then I just gave up and quit worrying about it. I'm usually pretty light on the throttle anyway so its rare I even hear it.

Mine doesn't burn any oil though. It also doesn't make the noise when cruising around 3000 rpm, only when accelerating quickly.

 

Ok so i figured it out! so after reading through different threads and pin pointing the problem i ended up fulling my tank with 50/50 gas aka reg/prem and pinging almost went away! so i went and got some seaform and ran it through the good old ranger and its GONE ! have not heard it yet and I've tried everything to get it to do it again and still no pinging. so if you got the problem i would start by putting a higher grade fuel in to the truck!

 

Higher grade fuel is just a temporary fix to the problem, and shouldnt be used exclusively. Filling it up with premium is just a way to diagnose which problem it is, so if it goes away, that tells you it is in fact spark knock and not something else. These trucks are made to run on regular, so when you go back to that fuel, and the rattle comes back, then the issue is still there. Seafoam will cure it, other things like changing spark plugs, wires coil pack, and pcv valve will also help. You can clean your maf sensor, iac, and throtle body as well. My 4.0 does this from time to time, i just dont let it bog down when going up hills and its not a problem. Just curious, did you run the seafoam through the fuel or into the brake booster??

 

oh ok, mine is not a pinging type noise, more of a vibration/rattle. As if something is hitting its resonant frequency and vibrating quickly.

 

ok so i ran Seafoam through the intake. It was a like a spray can. hold the RPMs up at 1100 and spray it for 2-3 mins and it smokes cleaning all the stuff out of it. and i must say it runs mint now. right after i put the premium gas in it was still there but not as much, after i did seafoam haven't heard it yet. i plan on doing plugs wire and core some time in the near future.