Hello, not to many posts under my belt, but a great site for info. I may be in the wrong area, but can anyone who has piston slap on this engine let me know if ford will do anything about this problem. I live in fl and use 820 filters and 5w20 mc oil, the problem is much worse when temp falls below 60deg. Have brought truck to dealer on many occasions, and they say it is normal. Dose anybody have any luck getting this fixed under warr. I have ext warr but problem has been there since about 5000 miles. I now have 53000 on truck, Thank You for any help ypu can provide on this matter the noise is driving me CRAZY, Thanks
PISTON SLAP 2004 2V 5.4 EXPY HELP
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i have 98's 4.6 sohc,4.6 dohc and 5.4 expy sohc..i use the motorcraft fl820s in the vic and the larger fleetguard lf3315 on my expy and continental no slap on these but the vic has a slight one that goes away in 5sec. or less and not all the time..my 5.0 lincolns always slapped for a sec or two...its the way these engines are made...chevys slap far more and longer then the fords do...i would never use a 5w20 oil in my vehicles..no way in my opinion..i use redline 10w30/motul mix...a high 30wt total...
It is not an uncommon problem. But it more annoying than anything. Good luck on getting it fixed. It is a design flaw more than anything. You will more than likely either live with the noise. Use a thicker grade of oil which will dampen the noise but you still have the slap. Don't worry there are a lot of 5.4 with the same issue. The same for GM V8's.
Yea, just live with it... There is nothing wrong with the engine. My 2000 drove me crazy at start up for the fist couple of minutes. I tried 5 different oil filters thinking that perhaps the anti-drainback valve was not working.
That MC5w20 is great oil, dont worry about it. There are several of these modulars with over 200k using the 5w20.
That MC5w20 is great oil, dont worry about it. There are several of these modulars with over 200k using the 5w20.
It is normal. It may be an annoyance, but it doesn't hurt anything. The dealer won't be able to cure it because Ford doesn't recognize it as a problem and had not provided a cure.
As a Ford Service Manager I had a customer that would not believe that it was normal until he started several (around 10 IIRC) new trucks on the lot and discovered that they all did it.
GM has a truck engine with the same concern.
Also, IIRC, Ford coats the piston skirts to protect them from damage even though they rattle until they warm up and expand.
As a Ford Service Manager I had a customer that would not believe that it was normal until he started several (around 10 IIRC) new trucks on the lot and discovered that they all did it.
GM has a truck engine with the same concern.
Also, IIRC, Ford coats the piston skirts to protect them from damage even though they rattle until they warm up and expand.
i failed to mention that the slap seldom is when its -5f...
It is NOT a design flaw, it's a manufacturing quality control issue. If it was a design flaw, virtually every engine produced in the last 10 years would have piston slap.
I have a GM with the 5.3 that has a bad case of piston slap also. I keep trying different oil + filter combos looking for the one that reduces it the most. So far the best has been the old Havoline dino and a Puralator Plus. Tried to find the SLOB on sale with no luck.
Did not this posting under Additives talk about the same type of problem?
http://theoildrop.server101.com/forums/s...1898#Post792926
http://theoildrop.server101.com/forums/s...1898#Post792926
My car has bad piston slap in just one cylinder. But it's much quieter than the connecting rod slap it had at one time.
My 1998 Yukon developed piston slap upon startup. Once the engine gets a little temp into it, it clears up. It started around 120,000 and now I'm at 184,000. Yeah, I don;t like it, but I've come to terms that I just have to be easy on it until it warms up. I'm building a fresh engine come spring.
Are you positive its piston slap?Over the last few years there are so many cases of piston slap that turn out to be carbon deposit build up.The N* and 6.0 are the best examples,only very few turn out to be actually piston slap but the noise they make is almost exactly the same it sometimes imitates a noisy lifter also,even experienced mechanics have difficulty distinguishing it from actual mechanical noises.While the 5.4 isn't as prone to it my expedition with a 5.4 did have some top end noise that disappeared after a few seconds.I cleaned the top end through the plug holes and started running Redline in the gas,the noise has disappeared.Any engine can have carbon issues but those with tighter valve to piston head clearance are the ones developing these noises.
Piston slap is caused by excessive piston to cylinder wall clearance. With the problem starting at only 5000 miles I would not be happy with that. Sounds like your dealer is giving you lip service waiting for the warranty to run out. A relative has a 5.4 2V and it does not have piston slap with 45K on it.
If it only an quality control issue why did the first 3 years on the new designed 4.8, 5.3, 6.0 LS engines have it? 1999-2002. If a manufacture had 3 years of quality control issues it deserves to go down.
the 5.0 had them too
When the piston slap issue first arose, Ford took a more serious view of it. When I took my 1999 F-150 Lariat in for one of its first routine services, I just casually mentioned this strange engine noise. They kept my truck for about a week, and I got it back with a new engine. It seemed to be routine for a while back then for them to just replace these piston slappers if they were new, only a few thousand miles on them.
This apparently only occurs in engines where the clearance tolerances of the pistons and cylinders stack up to make the fit too loose. What they need are tighter tolerances and more time to do a selective fit. Alternatively, they could redesign the pistons to have a longer skirt, minimizing the rocking motion that leads to piston slap.
This apparently only occurs in engines where the clearance tolerances of the pistons and cylinders stack up to make the fit too loose. What they need are tighter tolerances and more time to do a selective fit. Alternatively, they could redesign the pistons to have a longer skirt, minimizing the rocking motion that leads to piston slap.
Hey, Big Jim, were you a service manager back in 1999? When I took my 1999 Lariat in for service and mentioned this noise, they, without further question or investigation replaced my engine, which has given no further problems since then. (I still own this truck). My dealer seemed to have these new engines in stock as the problem was wide-spread back then.
It is both a design fault and manufacturing fault. It has to do with where the piston pin connecting the piston to the connecting rod is located, due to a certain emissions concern, and the possible stack up of TOLERANCES making for a loose fit in some engines. Paying more attention to the tolerances in each individual engine would cure this almost 100%. Did you notice that one person said they had piston slap in only one cylinder? Chevy and Ford just need to pay a little more attention to the quality of their manufacturing procedures.
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