Hey all, new to the forum. I’d seen some posts regarding the rattling in the engine bay, people saying spark knock and others saying it was their tranny plate but I don’t think I have those issues. I’ll give you some background on the truck. It’s a 2000, 1500, 5.2L, 4x4, auto. It’s got a transmission that’s got all of the usual stuff that goes on them fixed and it’s got an engine out of a Durango. I put in the trans myself but the engine was done by the previous owner. Engine - unknown km. Trans - 30k km. Body and everything else - 94k km.

The issue - I’ve noticed when I get on the throttle I hear a constant rattling noise, sounds like a tensioner banging around like monkey with a stick after 3000 RPM. Sometimes it’s there when it’s in higher RPM but not always, it does make the noise at 1500 RPM when giving it throttle to shift though. I’ve changed the belt, tensioner and clutch fan but nothing has worked however, I noticed when I changed the tensioner (because I’ve done it twice to make sure I’m not just dumb for buying a used one) the noise subsides for about a day and isn’t very noisy but after about 24h of run time, the monkey is back at full swing. If you have the truck in park and give it some gas, no noise, if you give it gas via throttle cable, no noise, it only does it under load. I had planned to replace all of the belt idler wheels just to check before I go ahead and replace everything on the front of the engine.

Does anyone have an idea of what’s going on before I just run it as is till it dies and put a 360 stroker in it?

TIA

If people want I can get a video of the noise, it’s very easy to hear in the cab.

 

Do you have 4 jack stands? If so, jack up the truck (front and rear) and put two jack stands under the front axle and two jack stands under the rear axle. Open the hood, start the truck and put the truck in gear. Operate the throttle under the hood and see where the noise is coming from.

 

Is the noise coming from the engine compartment? Is the fan hitting the shroud?