Piston slap noise?

[jtomasik]

I've been trying to track down a tapping noise in my motor. I've described this in depth in another thread.

http://www.powerstroke.org/forum/7-3...ng-things.html

Most threads here talk about as "injector hammer". I've read through several threads, and I ran across a comment by Marc that has my hair on fire. He stated that piston slap is motor temperature dependent.

http://www.powerstroke.org/forum/7-3...oise-help.html

My noise seems motor temperature dependent. It gets quieter as the motor is warmer. It's almost non-existant when the ambient air temp is above 65. It's only heard when idling or under partial throttle when cruising.


How would I diagnose if this is the problem? What kind of damage can be happening?

[Diesel_Diagnostician]

kms on engine? has it just started or has it been like that for a while? I have a few customers who have the lifter noise but I wouldn't get too worried about it (if it is a lifter noise), chev's 5.3 does the same thing right from the factory...

[jtomasik]

It has 161,000 miles on it. I'm not sure if it just started. The weather just got very cold here, and I'm noticing it the colder the weather is. When it's above 60 degrees, it's much quieter. I'm now not sure whether it's something new. Now I'm consciously listening for it.

[Diesel_Diagnostician]

Oil grade?

[jtomasik]

15W-40 Rotella T, changed every 3000 miles or so. The truck hasn't been used to haul anything. If this Ford is falling apart, I'll have to go back to my old opinion of their product.