Hey there all. Hope that the upcoming Christmas and holiday season is going well.

I'm a proud owner of a previously loved 2001 Ram 1500 with the 5.2L V8. When I bought it, it had 79000 miles, was a one-owner vehicle, and had good service records on the CarFax at least through 50000 miles.

While driving it home from Texas, I noticed that after it warmed up, it would make a ticking/knocking noise at idle. This noise would accelerate slightly with rpms till about seven or eight hundred and then go away. The truck idles smoothly, starts right up, and doesn't smoke or anything. Oil pressure via the stock gauge always stays nice and high within the normal range, and engine temps are fine. Gas mileage is as expected, and it seems to have plenty of pep.

I popped the hood, and it seemed like the noise is coming from the passenger side of the engine. When I manually opened the throttle slowly the noise was like I just said, present till about 700-800rpms and then it would disappear (and not seemingly because it was just drowned out by the rest of the engine).

I changed the oil to full synthetic, and also put some fuel injector cleaner in a new tank of premium (all just some voodoo for sure), and it didn't change the character of the sound.

I had a friend listen to it, and he said that it didn't sound like rod knock or anything really bad, and might just be an accessory belt tensioner or something. I've also heard that this may just be a common noise to dodge engines?

I'm a poor-ish student who really depends on his truck, so I was hoping to see if any of you thought that this is a serious problem that should be looked at, or if it's just a normal variant of dodge engines. Paying a $100 diagnostic fee, and being without my vehicle for a while would be rough, so I'm trying to avoid that if possible.

Thanks for your help.

 

I'm starting to believe it is the nature of the beast. I've had the same exact "tick" as you have forever.

Sounds like a nice Ram you have there! Welcome to the forum and Merry Christmaas and Happy New Year!

 

agreed +1

 

Probably just lifter tick. If it goes away with just a bit of gas, don't worry about, but, don't ignore it if it gets worse.

 

Might it be a talkative injector? A stethoscope will tell.

 

You guys with 360s just dont understand....Its a 318 thing.

 

Mine has done the same thing, I originally thought it was an exhaust leak, so I pulled the manifolds off and put heavy duty fel-pro gaskets in between them, leak didn't go away. Does the exact same thing you described, doesn't really tick until it warms up. Mine has done it since the day I have had it and no ill effects.

 

Hello there purpldodge, matty675, heyyou, unregistered user, and ramsport97. Thank you all for taking the time to respond to my post. I'm really relieved to hear that it's not something unusual, and I'll be sure to keep an eye (ear) on it to make sure that it doesn't get worse.

Thanks also for welcoming me to the forum. Looks like you all have a pretty awesome group of people.

In other news, I just got back inside from spending the afternoon replacing my spark plugs. Dam* those back two on the left side near the master cylinder are hard to get out. Got me some nice new NGK-G's and she's running pretty.

The ones that I pulled out were some Champions, and WOW, the gap was like 2-3x's spec through wear. I'm amazed that the engine didn't miss or anything. I replaced the wires while I was at it, and it makes me wonder if I should replace the distributor cap and rotor soon too. It's so far back there though, haha.

Have a good one guys, and I'll be sure to keep you posted if my engine blows up or something ;-).


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 

Sounds like your off to a good start! If you don't have any records of when the cap and rotor were previously changed I would go ahead and replace them.

 

I would go ahead and replace the cap and rotor. Its not a fun jub, but it is pretty easy. Plus you will know it was changed. Get a cap and rotor with Brass contacts from NAPA.