Smoke, Tick, Gettin Fixed

[grzellmer]

Posted a few weeks back on anyone in Northern IL or Southern WI that had the infamous Blue smoke and Tick fixed. Not a lot of response.

So, took it upon myself to educate the dealership and the FMC region rep on the two problems.

Armed with some of the documentation floating around here I took my MM into the dealership, explained the problem and asked them to fixed it. They called me at work a few hours later and said "We can't find anything wrong." I then returned to the dealership and talked with the service manager who again explain the tech could find nothing wrong. I then asked him to "just humor me" - lets walk outside to the car and start it up. Where upon the MM proceeded to exhale a big blue cloud of smoke.

My next comment was: "So, $35K Mercury Marauders are supposed to blow big blue clouds at startup?" His answer was a sheepish "No". We then opened up the hood and with my foot on the brake gave it a bit of gas. (Just off idle is when the tick is the loudest.) The manager could hear it, he went and got the tech and the tech could hear it. Problem identified.

Next getting FMC to authorize the fix. The dealer may have been slow to identify the problem but once found they moved on it. They contacted the Ford regional tech and he came by to look at it. The dealership tech easily repeated what I had done to show the problem. FMC tech's conclusion, blue smoke+ tick = bad heads. (I had thought only the drivers side was bad but the FMC tech said both - like I'm going to argue.) He submitted the paperwork to Ford recommending the both heads be replaced. The dealership followed with their request to order the parts. FMC approved it 2 days later and the parts were placed on order.

The heads and associated install parts arrived yesterday. I dropped the MM off this evening and tomorrow she goes under the wrench. By Friday I should have her back good as new. (Or I suppose the way she should have been when new.)

Not quite out of the woods yet but things look very good. Just wanted to let everyone know that you can get this fixed.

Will post an update on Friday pickup. (Will get part numbers on heads used as well)

On last item. This whole process has taken about a month to accomplish. My warranty expired on 11/11/05. The dealership kept my ticket open through the whole process. They could have blown me off, my warranty would have expired and I would have been SOL. SO many times you hear the service horror stories, but there are some hidden gems, just have to find them.

Gary

[merc6]

wow that is really rare. Finding a dealer that even looks at a modded car is also rare.

[jimlam56]

Gary:
Good stuff!
I'm sure any documentation you can provide will help us at our individual dealerships.
Thanks for your persistance.
Jim

[ckadiddle]

Hope the repairs go smoothly. Got my little fingies crossed for ya! ;)

[SergntMac]

Congrats on your good fortune, good to hear there are some dealerships and techs that will go to bat for you. Any chance you can get some pics of the old heads, and an opinion from the tech what went bad? That would be helpful for others.

[chicago_cop]

Posted a few weeks back on anyone in Northern IL or Southern WI that had the infamous Blue smoke and Tick fixed. Not a lot of response.

So, took it upon myself to educate the dealership and the FMC region rep on the two problems.

Armed with some of the documentation floating around here I took my MM into the dealership, explained the problem and asked them to fixed it. They called me at work a few hours later and said "We can't find anything wrong." I then returned to the dealership and talked with the service manager who again explain the tech could find nothing wrong. I then asked him to "just humor me" - lets walk outside to the car and start it up. Where upon the MM proceeded to exhale a big blue cloud of smoke.

My next comment was: "So, $35K Mercury Marauders are supposed to blow big blue clouds at startup?" His answer was a sheepish "No". We then opened up the hood and with my foot on the brake gave it a bit of gas. (Just off idle is when the tick is the loudest.) The manager could hear it, he went and got the tech and the tech could hear it. Problem identified.

Next getting FMC to authorize the fix. The dealer may have been slow to identify the problem but once found they moved on it. They contacted the Ford regional tech and he came by to look at it. The dealership tech easily repeated what I had done to show the problem. FMC tech's conclusion, blue smoke+ tick = bad heads. (I had thought only the drivers side was bad but the FMC tech said both - like I'm going to argue.) He submitted the paperwork to Ford recommending the both heads be replaced. The dealership followed with their request to order the parts. FMC approved it 2 days later and the parts were placed on order.

The heads and associated install parts arrived yesterday. I dropped the MM off this evening and tomorrow she goes under the wrench. By Friday I should have her back good as new. (Or I suppose the way she should have been when new.)

Not quite out of the woods yet but things look very good. Just wanted to let everyone know that you can get this fixed.

Will post an update on Friday pickup. (Will get part numbers on heads used as well)

On last item. This whole process has taken about a month to accomplish. My warranty expired on 11/11/05. The dealership kept my ticket open through the whole process. They could have blown me off, my warranty would have expired and I would have been SOL. SO many times you hear the service horror stories, but there are some hidden gems, just have to find them.

Gary


Had the blue smoke one time in the three yrs of ownership. No ticking though. My heads are fine, but I would take the new heads and run.

[Mike Poore]

Gary, there's a lot to be said for keeping one's cool and being persistant, and firm. I've learned long ago, no one ever feels good, after a pissing contest, and the satisfaction gained by telling someone off seldom results in solving the issue.

I award you two attaboy's

One for doing it right, and one for sharing your success. :trophy: :trophy:

[merc6]

The thing I noticed about owning these cars is FLM dealerships most of the times tend to forget their "we won't fix it" ways when they realize what we are bringing to them. they just like to see and hear it!

[Smokie]

Reason has prevailed, I am very happy for you. It's a shame that the FLM dealer network has little or no consistency when handling a problem, one place you walk in and handles the problem; another place it get's ugly and they literally tell you to "get the hell out and don't come back".

I had one major issue with my car, the paint job. My dealer totally disassembled car and did a total repaint, not an unpleasant word ever passed between my service advisor and myself, the job was done to my total satisfaction.

Glad your concern is being handled in the correct manner, please document your results for our members. Best wishes, Javier.

[DEFYANT]

Congrats on getting it done! I look forward to reading your updates on what when wrong.

[TripleTransAm]

Make careful note of the part numbers used for either head, and let us know.

In my case, they were okay with replacing the head... with the exact same casting and not the improved one. Gee, thanks...

[Bruce Wayne]

I was told by a very highly respected individual in the dyno lab at Essex Engine plant, Ford's world class testing facility in Windsor, Ont. not to worry about the infamous ticking sound that I have heard about. Although my car does not make this sound , this gent was truly sincere, and said there was nothing to worry about.

[ctrcbob]

I had Head problems on one of my InTech V8 Continentals. The car would idle fine, and drove fine, however with the car in gear at idle, it would shake. Dealer did a compression test and one cylinder was not holding compression, so the said it needed valves in that cylinder. Pulled the head, installed new valves, put it back together (but thankfully did not put engine back in car) and again ran a compression test. That one cylinder still was not holding compression. They then ordered a new head, (don't know if new valves were used), installed, and voila, it was now right.

Said it was a porous head. The tech that did the job said that it was the second Continental that he had to do for porous heads.

[Smokie]

I was told by a very highly respected individual in the dyno lab at Essex Engine plant, Ford's world class testing facility in Windsor, Ont. not to worry about the infamous ticking sound that I have heard about. Although my car does not make this sound , this gent was truly sincere, and said there was nothing to worry about.

I believe that his statement is true, however big difference between "nothing to worry about" and "nothing wrong", just like a big puff of blue smoke on start up is "nothing to worry about" but it sure would be unacceptable to me if my car did it in less than 10 years or 100,000 miles.:D

[MMM2003]

Posted a few weeks back on anyone in Northern IL or Southern WI that had the infamous Blue smoke and Tick fixed. Not a lot of response.
..........

On last item. This whole process has taken about a month to accomplish. My warranty expired on 11/11/05. The dealership kept my ticket open through the whole process. They could have blown me off, my warranty would have expired and I would have been SOL. SO many times you hear the service horror stories, but there are some hidden gems, just have to find them.

Gary

Gary:

Good for you! Congrats to sticking it out and following through with the Dealer and FMC. Glad you are getting this addressed. How many miles do you have on your MM?

Peter aka MMM2003

[TripleTransAm]

I was told by a very highly respected individual in the dyno lab at Essex Engine plant, Ford's world class testing facility in Windsor, Ont. not to worry about the infamous ticking sound that I have heard about. Although my car does not make this sound , this gent was truly sincere, and said there was nothing to worry about.


I am certainly not in any position to argue with a very highly respected individual working in a dyno lab of an engine plant... but I can certainly disagree with his assessment of the situation.

Having seen my faulty head in a disassembled state, I can tell you that I have NEVER EVER seen a valvetrain in this condition considered acceptable. I'm sure ANY knowledgeable engine expert out there would curl his nose at the sight of the sc***** valve stems and the valves ROCKING SIDE TO SIDE within their guides. We are talking about a 'high tech' motor here with space age tolerances, not a 2Bbl inline six truck motor from the 50s. This, coupled with whatever oil dribbled past the crappy valve seals into the combustion chamber, did a real number on the top surface of my pistons on those questionable cylinders... no doubt many years down the line this would cause a great degradation of performance through hot spots and subsequent knock retard on that already-too-hot cylinder head area.

Perhaps what Ford considers "nothing to worry about" is ultimately the source of all the "smoking-4.6s" jokes going around these parts.

Honestly, I invite anyone with the opportunity to examine their replaced cylinder head to do so, with the valves still in place. When you can rock the valve side to side enough to make the tick sound by hand, you know something's not right. There is a difference between acceptable 'loose' tolerances and unacceptable 'sloppy' tolerances.

[grzellmer]

The primary reason I wanted the smoke and tick issues resolved because I believe that at some point it does speak to the longevity of the motor.

However, there is also the embarassment factor. Image your colleagues driving Beamers, Lexus and other high end models. Then you show up with Mercury's sport sedan. You take the jabs of "Souped up Grandpa car" but then you start peeling off stats, 302HP, etcc... Now everybody wants to look at the car, the motor and then they ask you to start it up. Where upon said sport sedan huffs out a big blue cloud of smoke. In between the jabs, the fake coughing and laughter, you think to yourself, "I could have bought an Infinity G35 with 300+ hp, RWD AND a 5 speed."

I guess this is the difference between domestic & foriegn automakers. Alot of our cars have displayed the smoke on startup. Some have been told that its "normal". My thought is "Was the car designed to smoke at startup?". If the answer is "No", then its not "Normal". Now I have never owned a foreign car but I would suspect that blue smoke on startup would not be brushed off as "normal" (Unless all foreign car owners are just a bunch of lemmings.)

Maybe its a corporate philosophy that needs to change. Initial quality of domestic and foreign makes is nearly the same. Maybe its just how the small number of problems that do occur are approached. When a friends Baby Benz had electrical problems and had to be flatbedded, a dealer rep came out to his house in a loaner, explained how long they would have his car and when they would deliver it back TO HIS DRIVEWAY. When another friend had his Jaguar X-Type stop running on the highway (For the third time due to the same problem.) he caught a lift back to the dealership in the tow truck so he could call his wife to pick him up. Net is, the two cars are considered competitors in the same niche, made by two companies that appear to have very different ideas about customer service. Next time you need a new one, which would you buy?

Gary

[Marauderjack]

Gary,

Once your problem is resolved to your satisfaction drop a note of thanks to your dealer and the regional rep....It can only help you should anything further develop!!!:beer:

Good Luck!!

Marauderjack:D

[grzellmer]

Peter

Right now I have 26K miles. The problem was first reported
to the dealer at 14K.

Z


Gary:

Good for you! Congrats to sticking it out and following through with the Dealer and FMC. Glad you are getting this addressed. How many miles do you have on your MM?

Peter aka MMM2003

[grzellmer]

Another info update

Stopped by this evening to check on progress. There was none as the tech they assigned to do the job spent the day wrapping up other work. Needed to do this as he will be working on the MM for 2 days.

But I did manage to get the head numbers. They are:
1 - 2C5Z6049BAB
1 - 2C5Z6049JC

(I thought the the ..JC head was supposed to be ...CAB. Anybody know what the ...JC is?)

Peaked over the shoulder of the service writer as he was printing the info out for me. $1300+ for one and $700 for the other. (This was with minimal markup dealer to Ford.) No idea why cost are different. $2K just for the heads. One would think a new motor would be cheaper???

Z

[SergntMac]

two part number, two prices...Ummm...one head is an assembly, the other is bare?

[DEFYANT]

Peaked over the shoulder of the service writer as he was printing the info out for me. $1300+ for one and $700 for the other. (This was with minimal markup dealer to Ford.) No idea why cost are different. $2K just for the heads. One would think a new motor would be cheaper???

Z

$4000.00 total. Yeah, I think a new engine would be cheeper. And probably easier too.

Thanks again for the update.

[BLACK THUNDER]

That's great,
I had the same problem starting around the nine thousand mile mark, So tenthousund miles and four dealerships later I finally found a ford dealer who wasn't scared to touch it unlike the three mercury ones were. I came out with a new set of heads and no more smoke.

[grzellmer]

Picked Up the MM today Annnnnddddd......:baaa:

No more tick, no more blue smoke. Its Fixed!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah!!!! :) :) :)

Gary

[DEFYANT]

That is great news! Congrats for doing what so many 4v DOHC owners have been denied.

Mods, can this be a sticky in the garage. This is would be a great reference and should not get buried.

[TripleTransAm]

Picked Up the MM today Annnnnddddd......:baaa:

No more tick, no more blue smoke. Its Fixed!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah!!!! :) :) :)

Gary

Congrats. Break it in properly, and then go enjoy your 4.6 to its full potential (I still think the tick is heard by the knock sensor... my 2nd MM REALLY moves compared to my 1st one).

[grzellmer]

1000 Mile Update

After 1K miles the MM continues to run great. No smoke, no tick.

Changed oil today just to make sure the shiny new heads are getting fed well. A couple WOT takeoffs this afternoon. (The first) Not sure if it has more go or not as the snow tires smoke pretty easily. (Need to wait for the regular rims/tires to go back on.)

Suprisingly, Gas mileage seems to be a bit better. Maybe 1 or 2 mpg.

Very happy with the fix at this point

Z

[CRUZTAKER]

This is good to hear. You're story here has been officially added to my 'TICK' folder, that grows annually.

My day is coming....:help:

[SergntMac]

But I did manage to get the head numbers. They are:
1 - 2C5Z6049BAB
1 - 2C5Z6049JC

(I thought the the ..JC head was supposed to be ...CAB. Anybody know what the ...JC is?)

Peaked over the shoulder of the service writer as he was printing the info out for me. $1300+ for one and $700 for the other. (This was with minimal markup dealer to Ford.) No idea why cost are different. $2K just for the heads. One would think a new motor would be cheaper??? Z There is a left and right head, and it looks like the ordered one bare, one built.

[SergntMac]

$4000.00 total. Yeah, I think a new engine would be cheeper. And probably easier too. You're right, Charlie, Marauder crate engines include new accessories so all the wrench has to do, is drop it in place. But, retail on crate over the parts counter is 11K.

[merc]

1000 Mile Update

After 1K miles the MM continues to run great. No smoke, no tick.

Very happy with the fix at this point

Z

I had the tick on my first motor. As stated on many treads, the service manger said this is normal. 10 thousand miles down the road my engine locked up, not related to the tick issue. The new create engine was installed and everything was fine for months. Then I noticed the Tick returned, but not at the same audible level. I currently have 37 thousand miles on the frame and 27 miles on the motor.

[rauder775]

Hmmm, has me wondering as well. I have noticed blue smoke once in a while, but mostly when I just start it then shut it off, then start again...like moving it around. It had assumed it was related to running rich at first and no proper idle time.

Will pay closer attention now. No tick though.

[Marauder2005]

Hmmm, has me wondering as well. I have noticed blue smoke once in a while, but mostly when I just start it then shut it off, then start again...like moving it around. It had assumed it was related to running rich at first and no proper idle time.

Will pay closer attention now. No tick though.

My dealer told me this happens. I used to move my MM in the morning

to let out my other car (small driveway) The dealer told me if you start it

up, and quickly shut it down, then restart blue smoke will follow...

[Kennyrauder]

My Ford Store in Canada..... Northern Ontario is as good as they get..... treat my MM like it was God..... Iam Blessed....... Kennyrauder.

[rauder775]

I do think mine is from the movin' around stints. Cranked it up yesterday...nothing. Just that wonderful rumble from those big tips...ahhh

[stuart petri]

I am having problems with my dealership in CT with this very same problem any service records and comments would be greatly appriated. 04 blk mm 35,000

Thank you

Stuart

[grzellmer]

Stuart

Not too many maintenance receipts to show. I do nearly all the maintenance on my vehicles. Exceptions would be welding (Had new mufflers installed by CarX) or transmission fluid change. Things I don't have the equipment to do. (Or at least do RIGHT.)

Oil Changes are a 10 minute job that I can do when needed. Since my car had been in for a number of other items (Noisy fan, fish tank headlights - water in them, replaced power steering unit, and others.) the dealer had the opportunity to see it numerous times.

Not complaining about the problems. Doesn't bother me too much, as long as the dealership fixed them and they don't leave me stranded on the side of the road. Only one issue since the warranty expired. Problem with power windows & doorlocks. I fixed it myself (corroded fuse under the hood.)

As always, if ya got um, drink um. :beer:

Gary