I had been using regular oil through out the life of my car and then switched to full synthetic to give it a try. Ever since then my car has developed a tick that I believe is a lifter but want a second opinion before I go ordering the LS7 lifters. I just put some seafoam in the oil and going to give that 500 miles before I switch the oil out and see if that helps make the tick go away. I readjusted the rockers and spun the push rods, none were bent. Is it harmful if I let this go for say another 3000 miles? I only drive the car maybe 200 miles a month. The noise doesn't seem to be causing any power loss that is noticeable. It primarily does this after it is warm, but it's faintly noticeable at cold start up.

Any ideas or help is appreciated.

http://youtu.be/Wr1d9zhzp0I

 

Video wasn't ready yet. How many miles on the engine? I would be careful adding seafoam on high mileage engines.

 

There's 240k on it, all original minus the water pump. It just started doing this maybe 200 miles ago. I am thinking in the next couple weekends I am going to be taking the intake off and replacing the lifters. Unless anyone thinks it is something else/worse.

I'm not sure why youtube can't process that video quick enough, its a short video. Here's a link to it on photobucket.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v4...t=MVI_1328.mp4

 

Due to the soft puffy nature of the sound my first reaction is exhaust leak.

 

That makes me feel a little better. Here is another video with slightly better sound and a small rev.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v4...t=MVI_1332.mp4

 

You can use a stethoscope to pin point the noise if its under the valve covers. I bought one from Harbor Freight for under $5. I have seen a lot of people add seafoam to there motor and it removes the sludge from the engine and it plugs things up and then your in a serious mess. Eventually you will need to rebuild, so keep that in mind as far as what you do for upgrades and how much you spend.

 

I have a stethoscope and used it to find what cylinder it was. I put the scope on the head of the bolt of each rocker on that cylinder and they didn't sound too different from any other cylinder. As well as probing any other spot around that cylinder.

RamAir95TA had it right. I happened to have an extra set of header gaskets laying around and threw a new one on the passenger side. Noise is completely gone. The old gasket was split along the gasket since it was a "dual layer" metal gasket. Ended up just splitting the two metal layers apart right at the cylinder I could hear the noise from.

Thanks for the help