Merry Christmas everyone well i got a problem and i hope ya'll can help me. Got a 1994 Ram reg cab 4x4 with a 5.2L. I was comin home from work the other day and hit some water doin about 50 and the truck died on me. Tried to start it back and it acted like it was draggin the starter. Well left it on the dirt road for about 4 hrs. Truck started great but now gots a knock. I can't figure out what the hell it is. sounds like its on the passenger side. I took the valve cover off cause i thought i might have a collapsed lifter but everything looks good there. I'm not sure what it is. If anyone has an idea please let me know. Never had a truck hit water before then start knocking. lol O oil is clean. i just don't understand. its loud to. Thought about takin plug wires off one at a time to see if maybe its a wrist pin

 

Do your test, see which cylinder it is. Then do a compression test. Wonder if the engine didn't ingest some water, and you bent a rod......

 

I will do the test and i sure hope it ain't that. lol but i reckon i will deal with it if it is. I'm thinkin it is. thanks for the reply on it. Its got me scratchin my head, feet and butt. lol

 

Could be a lifter or rocker arm tickin...that's what I thought my problem was and it drove me crazy. I went thru and checked rocker arms and push rods, cleaned um all and re-torqued it all. Ran some Marvell Mystery oil to see if it would unstick what ever was stuck if anything. It ended up being a exhaust manifold leak. Valve train noise and exhaust leaks can be close sounding gremlins.

 

Open the airbox/air-filter, look for any small signs of water/moisture in it. Check the filter is it wet?

 

I had the same "lifter tick" for years and one day i noticed while changing my oil I had black carbon around one little spot on the number 7 cylinder exhaust manifold...cracked manifold for sure so replaced them both with shorty headers off ebay and a annealed copper gasket, never had a problem since, tick is gone.