Hi all, first post but have been reading this forum for the last few months to address the various engine ticks, rattles, tapping and other noises I have with my truck. I have fixed all of them, except one... and it has me stumped.

But first... I have a 2001 Dakota SLT 4x4 with 156k miles, 4.7 engine, and 45rfe trans. Bought used late last year and I recieved zero maintenance history with the truck when I bought it (that's another story) but the engine looks like it has been rebuilt at some point judging by the sloppy grey silicone used and metal head gasket. But it's just a guess. Engine and truck runs fine overall. No overheat. Good oil pressure.

And some history... on the top end, had a bad lash adjuster on the #3 cylinder... was such a pain to get the valve cover off I just replaced all lash adjusters on the left bank so I would not have to do it again in a looooong time. So the top end is quiet. Next I had an exhaust leak... some broken studs, so replaced with real Dodge gaskets and studs, after milling the manifolds flat and reinstalling. Passed a shop vac/soap test and smoke test... no exhaust leaks now.

So now the last problem... a ticking sound (whistling almost, which is why I focused on the exhaust) when in gear when driving under load. Like driving up a hill, starting around 1200 rpm you hear ticking and eventually you don't hear it anymore when road noise overcomes the ticking noise (but I assume the noise is still there). You can also induce the problem by putting the truck in gear, left foot on the brake, and running the engine up to 1200 rpm against the torque converter... you hear the ticking in the cab. If you Rev up the engine in park (no load)... sounds great no ticking.

To troubleshoot, I disconnected the coil packs one by one and found that when cylinder #1 was disconected, the ticking stopped when doing the parked, in gear, 1200 rpm test. Disconnecting any of the other cylinders did not make a difference and I still heard the ticking. So I swapped coil packs around and the problem stayed with cylinder #1. Disconnected the fuel injector on cylinder #1and the ticking also went away. Use a mechanics stethoscope to listen to cylinder #1 vs the other cylinders and did not hear a difference. Pulled the plug and it looked normal with .040 gap. Have not done a compression test yet.

So now I am not sure what this is.. I've searched around could not find anything defenative. Could it be a piston wrist pin issue? Bad injector? Or something else? Would be interested in any thoughts or suggestions...

 

Hi all, some more info. Did an oil analysis on the 4.7 after a 3,000 mile run on dino. The results don't look great, here's the summary:

"Aluminum, chrome, and iron are high compared to universal averages, which show wear levels for
this type of engine after about 5,100 miles on the oil. This was a shorter run, so wear really shouldn't be this
high. Aluminum shows piston and/or bearing wear. Chrome is from rings and iron is from steel parts. Silicon
could be dirt, so check air filtration and the intake for any leaks or cracks. Silicon could be sealer too if work
was done recently. If new parts were installed, some of the metal could be wear-in."

So I am assuming the #1 rod bearing at this point. Some additional questions...

1. Are the connecting rod bolts press in? I was going to buy a reman engine but replace the TTY "reconditioned" rod bolts with new ones. My hope is the rod bolts just come out and don't require a press and I could easily swap them.

2. What's a good source for the rod bolts and what's the correct PN? I looked around and think it's 06508504AA.

jenner