Engine noises

Does it sound like something is grinding when you try to start it?

This guide will help

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/engine-noises

As far as the power, has the check engine light come on? Have you checked the catalytic converter to see if it is plugged?

It sounds like either the teeth are bad on the starter or the flywheel. That would make the noise when you try to start it and it would be loud, You will need to remove the starter.

As far as the light, take the vehicle to a nationally recognized parts store and have them scan it to see what is causing the light to come on. Most do it for free.

The catylatic converter is part of the exhaust system. It is under the car. Sometimes when they are plugged, they will glow red hot, so check under the vehicle at night after driving it.

Let me know what you find and if you have other questions.

Joe

That is 233000 miles that you are hearing. All the bearing have excessive clearance worn into them and all the oil drains down overnight. When you first start it these spaces have no ol in them and that creats a knocking. Once the oil pressure builds up, which takes a lot longer now, the noises quiet down. The engine is tellingyou that it doesn't have a lot of life left. You could help it by putting in a bottle of very thick oil treatment like the old STP oil treatment. There are some other brands also.

It sounds like it could be the starter.

I would want to check starter teeth and flywheel teeth, to see if they engage properly. Do you have a flywheel inspection cover that you can remove? When you had the old starter out, could you check the flywheel teeth?

Give me a second and I'll post starter wiring circuit. You have to be sure the battery has a full charge and the battery connections are good. Do your other electricals work ok?

Here is starter wiring. Any testing at the starter, make sure tranny is out of gear, and the parking brake is set. Block the wheels.

Does the sound get louder and quieter as you turn left and right?

Hmmm I am stumped then. My Blazer does this too, but in its case it is coming from the cooling fan, which is a clutch driven system. Your truck's cooling fan is electric, so I doubt that is causing it.

The only way a plug can blow out is for the thread to be so worn the plug will not tighten up fully. That is if the plug was tight in the first place. The problem will be fixing the thread in the head, you can get it re coiled, that is fitting a thread insert, but the correct way is to remove the head as failing to do this may allow the swarf from drilling and re-threading entering the cylinder. I fail to see how a camshaft can cause this problem.

I look up the cooling fan in "Prodemand" to look for maybe some helpful information.

I saw 'electric' and 'hydraulic' cooling fans listed when I did the cooling fan search.

Any idea on which you might have?

The Medic

This was a pretty common problem in those Ford engines. They make a kit that installs a heli-coil pretty easily without any ill effect. I have done a few of them.

The kit is a bit expensive so it may be cheaper to find a shop that has the kit and just pay them to repair it. I usually charge about one hour per plug.