My ticking Marauder...

  • Thread starter Thread starter TripleTransAm
  • Start date Start date
Steve, no the ticking did not go away after changing the plugs.
I'll check tomarrow to see if the oil burning at startup stopped.

Thanks!
 
Ticking and Smoking

TripleTransAm said:
#7 plug, eh? Coincidence? hmm..... ;)

I'd be inclined to recommend you keep a watch on that spark plug and any puffs of smoke on startup. Did your ticking go away after the spark plug change?
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Yes Steve, my MM did smoke this mroning when I started it with the stock plugs!

Dropped her off at the F/M Dealer today, they are going to call me tomarrow with the compression test results and recommended fix for the ticking and smoking problem.

This not good, soft valve guides and now I here we may have trany problems due to bad trany parts and improper assembly methods. What is next?

If FMC keeps this up its going to be trade time!

Thanks!
 
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If everything is according to time plan, tomorrow the part(s) should arrive and I will post parts numbers once everything is tight and working fine.
 
I have noticed the ticking from driver side with hood closed...but no white smoke but i am only at 4300 miles triple t what are miles on your MM
 
He already stated 8750 easy miles with one drag strip visit included.
 
SILVERMARAUDER said:
I have noticed the ticking from driver side with hood closed...but no white smoke but i am only at 4300 miles triple t what are miles on your MM
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If you see any smoke on startup caused by valve related problems, it would be blue. White is normal as long as it goes away. If it does not go away, you have other problems...head gasket usually.

Bob
 
Ticking and Smoking Motor

TripleTransAm said:
If everything is according to time plan, tomorrow the part(s) should arrive and I will post parts numbers once everything is tight and working fine.
Click to expand...

Steve did you get your parts and what was your out come?

Thanks!
 
First off, no more ticking. Some smoke on startup but it is now (according to my tech) what I was initially mentioning... part white (humidity) and part dark (running pig rich, as he described it). Since the plugs looked okay, I'd say the CRD1 software only runs pig rich at startup, but I digress.

I'm a little short on time so I'll be brief and expand later:

First off, the Marauder and Cobra (even this year's S/C) have the same heads. They have the same cams, valves, etc. Check out the parts numbers.

Second... if you replace your head with what Ford recommends, you get the same (faulty) head. Get your dealership to work out something where you will receive the part number quoted by BON regarding the cobra valve guides. The heads come pre-assembled so no machining required (ie. comes with valves, cams, rockers, etc.etc.etc.)... plug and play.

I think my dealer is going to try to push Ford to include the Marauder in the silent recall. However, make sure with your own dealer that you are receiving the new head, not the original part number.

While we were at it, a second knock sensor was installed and wired. Within a few weeks, we're going to try our own home made version of the 2004-retrofit kit, will report how it goes.
 
One more thing... got the car yesterday when I got back from a business trip (slept only 1.5 hours in 3 days... woo hoo!) and the car feels same as before. Nice and powerful.

No apparent increase in power, although it did seem to be able to squeal away from stoplights much more often than not. Probably just a by product of having the PCM unplugged all that time (it forgets it's adaptation calibrations very soon after electric power loss), I'll keep watching it for a few more days.

Nice to have a quiet idle under the hood once again...
 
Ticking

TripleTransAm said:
One more thing... got the car yesterday when I got back from a business trip (slept only 1.5 hours in 3 days... woo hoo!) and the car feels same as before. Nice and powerful.

No apparent increase in power, although it did seem to be able to squeal away from stoplights much more often than not. Probably just a by product of having the PCM unplugged all that time (it forgets it's adaptation calibrations very soon after electric power loss), I'll keep watching it for a few more days.

Nice to have a quiet idle under the hood once again...
Click to expand...

Thanks Steve!
I am sure we'll all be waiting for answer on the new head and if your Dealer gets Ford to agree to include MM in the 2003 Cobra silent recall!
 
TTA,

Did they replace just the left side cylinder head with 3R2Z-6049-GA or both? Did they replace it with the alternate part number under warranty?

Any way to find out if the heads on the '04 are the same as the '03?

I am a little north of 1400 miles and either reading this thread is making me paranoid or I think I am hearing a ticking or clacking noise in time with the valve train. When I point it out, other people hear it too.
 
Steve-

I've been following this thread since the beginning. You've outdone yourself with the posts. Unfortunately, I share your "tick".

Mine began a few weeks after getting the car. It stayed pretty mellow until late August when it got a tad louder. Prior to modding the car, I took it in for service and requested that the dealer pay special attentiion to the noise. They assured me all was normal. I then dove in head first to the mods.

Now that the headers and exhaust has been built / installed, the "tick" is even more noticeable. Actually, I think it got a lot worse. I can hear it from any angle standing outside the car... up to about 20 feet away. It is loudest from the driver side fender well. Worst of all, I can hear it above the engine from 2500 rpm to about 4000 rpm.

I even had strangers ask me if I had an exhaust leak. It's horrible. I really hope I can get my dealer to do this work for me. After removing the stock cats and bolting those headers to the motor... they might tell me to go screw. Is there anything else I should know before attempting to speak with my Service Manager about this?? Any feedback from your dealer about the Cobra's "silent recall"??
 
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Agent M79 said:
Did they replace just the left side cylinder head with 3R2Z-6049-GA or both? Did they replace it with the alternate part number under warranty?
Click to expand...


They only replaced the driver's side head, which coincided with the TSB on the Cobra. According to the parts database at my dealer, both the Cobra S/C and the Marauder share the same heads. The factory wanted to replace the head with the same part number, my dealer fought to get the new part number. 14.56 seconds later, I have a fully functional FrankenRauder ;) (my new nickname for it).

Yes it was replaced under warranty.

About your ticking... don't be paranoid, there is a normal ticking involved with injectors because of their normal operation (small pintles shooting forth and retracting very quickly, many times a second in some cases). Also, Sarge pointed out to me an interesting source of similar noise which is the pulsating of the fuel rails as the injectors fire... I'd never heard that one but it surely makes sense.

In my case, it was very audible with the hood closed from several feet away from the vehicle (if you can hear it from behind the car, you know you've got issues). With the hood open, the ticking can definitely be localized under the driver's side valvecover at about the second to last cylinder on that side, counting from the front (or if you prefer, the second cylinder counting from the firewall). We heard it in another MM's engine bay at Hershey, it's unmistakable.

I should have taped the sound before the repair, for reference.
 
Constable said:
It is loudest from the driver side fender well. Worst of all, I can hear it above the engine from 2500 rpm to about 4000 rpm.
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Interesting... I never noticed that 2500-4000 thing with my car, but perhaps I hadn't reached that same point. Or perhaps I didn't know any better, since I never owned a DOHC'er.

About the dealer thing... tough call. My first guess would be to find a dealer that is sympathetic to modded cars... anyone with half a wit (the imperial kind, not the smaller metric type) will put 2 and 2 together and realize the Cobra and Marauder share the same heads, so if you complain about the same problem, the same fix applies. And the same half wit will know that the "recall" does not mention owner abuse but rather faulty valve guides from the factory.

If you end up with less than a half-wit, I can see him refusing to work on it because it's been modded. Might even try to blame it on the mods (although you should have already had it on record that you mentioned the ticking previously).

If you do find a sympathetic service department, shower them with gifts of business (like, oil changes, buy all your parts through them even if it means higher cost, etc.). Be prepared to travel to such a sympathetic dealer and possibly eat the cost of a rental in the meantime, because you are treading on sticky turf.

I'm expecting to hear back from my genius technician tomorrow regarding some more investigations into this 2003/2004 knock sensor thing, I'll mention your plight and see if he has any more suggestions or ideas.
 
To clear up, I never heard the "tick" at the higher RPMs until I had the headers installed. I figure they're probably just amplifying the sound while the motor is under a load. (Don't know for certain, but it sounds like a decent theory!)
 
Could it be an honest-to-goodness header leak in conjunction with the valvetrain tick that is making it more noticeable at high RPMs? To have the headers amplifying the sound of a noisy valve or damaged valve seat would imply a great deal of noise to begin with... headers have to contend with a really big cacophony of noise due to combustion so hearing internal noises above all that is really something else.
 
I am back from the dealer.

It is apparently easier to hear the ticking from inside the vehicle. I can not hear it outside the vehicle or with the hood up.

Tech could hear it but refused to characterize it as anything, not even normal.

They "ran the sheet" for it (I assume they mean service bulletins) and came up with nothing.

Service Advisor advises they would like to schedule it for some testing and call "The Hotline".

They were either not wanting to discuss the situation or did not care to speculate without further testing.

I'll be getting a 2nd (maybe a 3rd) opinion ASAP.
 
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