K guys.... My motor got 1200 miles on it. When I start it there is like a loud ticking to chirping like sound comoing from my passenger side valve cover. After it warms up for like a minute it goes away completely. Car runs fine.

I adjusted the valves today and its still there, not as bad but still there. Any ideas????

 

When my engines cold, I have a lifter that will occasionally tick for a couple minutes. It goes away after theres good flow in the lifter valley.

 

If the car runs fine and pulls just as strong most likely not a lifter, but still possible. What kind of rockers you have, a buddy of mine had scorpions and the needle bearings in the trunion got Fckd and the rocker was junk. Make sure your rockers are in good shape cuz his ticked like a bitch when this happened.

Sure its not an exhaust leak either? Did you do the screwdriver test, put the head on the valve cover and put your ear on the handle, then move the head around to other surfaces and see where its loudest?

 

Hmm so tighening down the rocker arms didnt work huh.
Back when I had this problem i thought it was a collapsed lifter. But I hear its not very common for a car(without pretty serious mods) to just have a lifter collapse. Some people said it could happen, but it didnt sound like it was common at all.
It turned out to actaully be like 2 of my rocker arms were loose. I wouldnt tighten one down, but it kept ticking. Turned out it was another friggin rocker clicking, I just kepting thinking it was the first one I found.

If you have all of them tightened down to zero lash, then it could be a lifter. My guess is they arent all at zero lash. Keep messing with it and hope you finally find the one making noise. If not, it could also be an exhaust leak like someone said.

Good luck

 

Its brand new 1.6's, came with the Hot Cam Kit. Which are Crane Golds. If it was an exhaust leak...it wouldn't squeek and would it go away after the engine warmed up after a couple of minutes? I'm sure its not cause I can hear it coming straight from the Valve cover.

 

Could be collapsed lifter then maybe, but i dont have any experience with those, so wait for more replys on that. Are the lifters stock, how many miles on them if so.

I still think its a loose rocker arm. Trust me, i went as far as buying 16 lifters that are sitting in my bedroom. Was gonna do a cam swap and throw those badboys in there. I kept messing with it, and eventually one day, the ticking went away. That was when i found another rocker arm was loose.

Keep trying man, i would almost bet money its just a loose rocker arm nut. Its hard to pinpoint because they only click for a few seconds and stop. I found mine by having the car off and physically playing with each rocker arm. My number 1 exhaust rocker arm was loose. So I started it up, tightened that one down, and it fixed it.

You can also try to do this by using the method where you turn the crank when the cars off

Um go to shoeboxes site...im at my dads so I dont have it bookmarked, so search for shoebox and look in his sig, he has the site there. Then find where it tells you how to find zero lash when the car is off. You have to line it up so the rockers are at top dead center, and then you tighten them down until you cant spin the pushrod anymore(this is me remembering it, so dont quote me on this, i may be a little off)

Give that a try and see if it works.

 

Exhaust leak at the manifold/head. Check all the manifold bolts, make sure they are tight.

If the bolts are tight, check for leaks with your hand (with engine cold, of course). If your lucky, you'll feel air blasting out.

Mine made a similar chirping/squeeling noise, then after a minute would go away. eventually, it blew out the maniflod gasket on #8. It really sounded like a belt or something other than a exhaust leak.

 

PGR you must have esp. Just finished working on her and went to redo the lash again and figure I'd tighten the exhaust bolts while I was there. The outter bolt on #8 was loose. I could move it with my fingers. I think it was a combo of both, because after I originally adjusted the rockers yesterday it went away a lil.

thanks everyone for the input.