engine has a loud tick

[68TTT]

help!!!!
i just put my old motor into my "new" 68 camaro, it is a 350 bored over 30 with stock rods and crank but forged pistons. comp xtreme 274, vortec heads made to hold the larger valve springs. i had this motor in my old camaro and put 10,000 miles on it with a lot of abuse. my throtle got stuck open a few days ago and i had to shut the engine off at about 4500 rpm or so, no tach so i'm just guessing on the rpms. i have been driving the car just thinking it was an exahust leak but it seems to be getting worse. i have to drive this thing to work tomorrow and i need to know if i should call a cab.

any ideas????

[zbugger]

Take a valve cover of and check the springs and rockers. Also look at the pushrods. If you don't have a tach, there's no guessing on the rpms. Check the valvetrain for damage and also check your header bolts, assuming you're running headers.

[68TTT]

full length headers, i'm just waiting till the motor cools off. any idea why it would make the noise much worse under load. i just put this motor in 2 weeks ago.


found 3 loose header bolts, still ticks louder than it should. i pulled the valve cover and everything looks good. lots of oil on all the rockers. and its only around #7

[rohrt]

With the covers off start the car and put your hand on each rocker with pressure and see if that changes the noise. This will make a big mess and do it carfully so not to get hurt but you may find the lifter or bent push rod causing this.

[68TTT]

i will try that tonight.

[bochnak]

Pour some tranny fluid down the carb while running. If smoke appears in the engine bay, you have a header leak. If header bolts were loose, chances are you blew a gasket.

[72Z/28]

I had ticking noise before, and it turned out to be a broken rocker arm stud . Drove the car without knowing about the broken stud causing the lifter to jump off its place to the intake valley. That ticking noise was from the push rod sitting on the cam..

[68TTT]

how many quarts should i pour in??? j/k
i've heard that before but never tried it. i'll try that first.

would shutting the engine off at wot cause any problems. i've had to do it twice now due to my linkage binding.
got the linkage fixed but can't help but think that the loud backfires out the exhaust are not that good for the motor. could that have bent an exhaust valve or pushrod?

[bingham72]

start with the rockers.. maybe a guide plate came loose or a rocker is loose. then work your way down the valve train.
I just had to do this with my car, ticking at load and under decelleration. Turned out to be a collapsed lifter and a rounded off cam lobe. but I tried readjusting the rockers first. then pull the push rods one by one and make sure they aren't bent or a valve spring is broken. I had that done too. if you get past that with no clear idea, check out my thread below. I have a picture of what the bottom of the collasped lifter looks like.
Good luck.

[68TTT]

ticks loud under load and noticeable at idle but when i get out of the throttle it seems to disappear. i pulled the valve cover last night and checked the rockers and everything looked great. great oil coverage on all the rockers and the tips were right in the middle of the valve.

[bochnak]

how many quarts should i pour in??? j/k

I figure this would be the easiest test for starters, and will only take a minute of your time. I hate tearing apart stuff realizing it was something simple.

[68TTT]

that will be the first thing i do when i get off work

[cheapthrillz]

take about a 3ft hollow piece of metal tubing and use it as a stethoscope to determine where the noise is the loudest....

check each cylinder, header pipe, valve cover, and any other place you can think of....

where ever it is the loudest, that is most likely the root of your problem. Let us know where the noise is coming from specifically and we will try to help you from there...

You should be able to hear a difference in the volume of the ticking by using the tubing...

Hope this helps a little

EDIT-(PS, a solid piece of round stock or square stock works too)

[68TTT]

i actually have a stethoscope that has a metal rod that comes from the end of it. i get off at 7pm cst. and then i'm going to tear into it.
i have an extra 350 sitting in the garage that i can rob parts from if i have to. i'm really hoping it is just a really bad exhaust leak.
if its in the bottom end that ls3 and m6 i have been planning may get bumped up.

weird... now i'm hoping it screwed. now theres an idea. i now know how to convince the wife its a must.

[MrQuick]

just uncork the headers and it will be fine.

If it goes away off idle I believe you might have a collapsed lifter...hows your oil pressure when all this is going on?

[68TTT]

checked with the scope and got nothing. everything sounds the same.
i spun a bearing in one of my old motors due to an oiling problem and it sounded alot like this. but then again i could just be paranoid about engine ticks. pulled the valve cover with the engine running and everything looks good. i'll pull the header off and change the gasket this weekend.

the oil pressure stays up the whole time. drops down a bit when the motor heats up but that doesn't change the sound at all. and there is plenty of oil comming out of the pushrods.

[rohrt]

Try taking the belts off everything...Long shot. I had a car with a sheard off balancer pully bolt. It was more of a squeek sound then a tick.

Possible broken flex plate. Brother had this happen twice and it sounded like a spun bearing. More of a knock then a tick.

One last thought. Brothers GTO had the crank catch the scrapper and make a bunch of noise.

[qwik1320]

Hopefully it's just a blown header gasket. I had a wicked knock in mine that I thought for sure was a valve train issue - but the car ran fine. Turns out I blew out the bottom of the gasket at #'s 1 and 3. Replaced with aluminum gaskets and all is well!

[David Pozzi]

The stethescope with rod is OK for finding metal to metal noises, but a plain hose is better for finding squeaks and exhaust leaks that don't transmit vibrations through the metal.

Remove the hose from where the stethescope plugs in to the sensor with the rod, add more hose to that to hear sounds through the air.
David

[cheapthrillz]

Had a .040 over 350 that had a bad wrist pin that made a ticking sound... wore the cylinder into an oval

Had a .030 over 350 that literally had 0 miles on it and it knocked as soon as I cranked it up... had a bolt imbeded in the top of the piston and two spun main bearings... made the same noise


Good luck!