Ok..... I just got a 1997 Z28, so far I love the car. You guys should be happy, because I was a Ford guy. The Camaro just sucked me in, I couldn't not have one in my collection :P. I still have the Ford though, the T-Bird is just getting rebuilt right now. Anyways, I bought this car from a guy locally, and it used to be a Colorado State Patrol vehicle. It has 149,xxx miles on it now, but still has plenty of power. However, as I have searched about the "ticking" it has, I just want to get the notion that I may have to rebuild another motor right now out of my head w/ some extra opionions. It is ticking pretty loud, seems to be from the driver side. You can hear it, it is obvious and when the radio is somewhat low you can still hear it inside the car. Is it probably just an exhaust manifold leak? The car's performance isn't hindered, and it doesn't miss or anything. Oil pressure is also good, around 20psi in gear stopped, 40psi when going. Haven't got on it enough to see what it gets up to. Temp stays within range and everything. I just want to fix this ticking, it's really damn annoying.

You can check out some pics of my car at the Supercoupe Club of America forum.... here: http://www.sccoa.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61650

Thanks in advance,
Nick

 

this is kinda offtopic but:

you should paint your headlight buckets black, and also, move the badges on the side of the car above the strip molding (where they originally belong)

as for the ticking...is it constant? or every once in a minute kinda thing

 

Sounds like a valve is out of adjustment

 

It varies w/ RPM and is always there whether cold or up to temp. As for the front bumper and emblems, yeah, it needs new front and rear bumpers and the fenders and hood need to be realigned. They probably added the Z28 emblems b/c i don't believe the police issue vehicles had emblems on them at all. At least there's some warning to the car next to me though I'll worry about all that later though, i just want/need it to run better.

I'll tighten up the exhaust and see if it isn't a leak before i dig into anythign else, it shouldn't hurt anything, they people i got it from have been driving it a while w/ it i think. So, it isn't anything major, it also has a CEL on that i need to check out. The Air Bags wouldn't trigger the CEL though, right? Air Bag computer is seperate correct?

Thanks again in advance

 

must be something with 97s, I have a ticking from the driver side you can hear when idling, tick tick tick tick. its either an exhaust leak or a rocker needing adjusting, i havent figured out which just yet.

 

Get a piece of 3/8" fuel hose and use it like a stethoscope. Move it around the engine compartment until you find the source of the noise. Most likely it is an exhaust leak or rocker noise. If you do a search you can find rocker adjustment procedures on here.

 

a long screwdriver works good. place the end where ever w/your thumb over the handle and put your thumb to your ear. as far as noise maybe being a police package the beefed er up a bit. w/my comp 1.6 rr's the sound like a sewing machine working overtime.

 

come to think of it i think my car ticks too...but its pretty quiet.

 

I've said it a few times and I'll say it again... I have yet to hear an LT1 without a top end tick. My 94 does it, my last one (96) did it, my friends 96 35th aniversry did it, my other friends 96 Formula did it. Don't worry about it. There isn't anything thats gonna fix it. I also have yet to find anyone who honestly knows exactly what it is, nor have I found anyone who has gotten rid of it. Don't bother adjusting the rockers either. I've heard of people on here trying it, but it doesn't help. It's just one of those things. Get a louder exhaust.

 

Or it could be an exhaust leak.

 

same tick here, driverside. Performance is not lacking, but noise is very annoying. I do not hear it from valves. I'll worry about it when I make my 383 stroker.

 

Welcome to the GM camp BTW!

 

A '96 35th anni eh? I wonder what the '64 Camaros looked like

 

Haha that would be a 1961 Camaro. Anyone have a pic of one of these? Haha just messin with ya dawg

 

Maybe its our injectors, but I rebuilt my whole top end and still have the tick. I know I have seen horrible injector noise on little quite economy cars that would scare you.