The tick varies with RPMs and seems to do it more on decell than accell. Also it isnt as pronounced when the car is first started and its cold. I really dont think its an exhaust leak, Ive had the exhaust off since I have had this problem and I looked for signs of a leak which I didnt see. Im thinking lifters, but when I pull the valve covers off I cant really pinpoint it.

 

Either readjust all the valves or you can get an auto stethascope which will help pinpoint where it's coming from.

 

Ive adjusted the valves multiple times, no luck. Ive tried the length of gardenhose trick and havent had much luck finding it.



Car runs and drives great, its just embarrassing with this tick

 

how long has it been since you did all your work? (head/cam swap) and did you change timing chain at the time? if so what part number? did you also change injectors and tune the computer to match the injectors? i had a nice tick, nded up being a timing chain issue. caused me to do rebuild on a fresh motor.

 

Been about 10000 miles since I put in a new LT4 timing chain and sprockets, computer is tuned.

 

Try using a long (real long) screwdriver to listen instead. Listen to each of the rocker studs. If there is something tapping in the valve train, you'll hear it. And you'll know where it's coming from.

 

Don't drive it too much with that "tick" until you find out what it is. Have you tried to adjust the valves with the engine running?
It's also somewhat possible it could be a loose spark plug.

 

Next time it starts ticking, when its dark, open the hood and look at your ignition, around the cap, wires and plugs. That ticking can be made by a jumping spark from a bad plug wire or cap or coil. It has to be really dark to see this.
Jim

 

Adjusted the valves with the engine running and not, also checked for an arching wire in the dark, all spark plugs are tight!

Noticed the sound is quieter when I am on dirt, also hear it more from the side of the car, than from the front.

Really do not think it is an exhaust leak!!! Sounds mechanical.

 

I had a similar sounding problem at about 100,000 miles and it turned out to be the surface of the roller lifter was chipped and so was the cam on the lifter. I happened again at about 330,000 miles. Both times I was able to diagnose by using one of those inexpensive stethoscopes and putting it right on the valve cover to narrow down the area. Once I found the area, I remove the cover and put it on the rocker post and listened again. It was obvious which one. In my case, the number one cylinder.

From there, you will need to remove the intake and the lifter to be sure but it isn't that much work. Hope this helps.

Jeff

 

Hmmm, I have a similar issue with mine. Car has always ran strong though, no knock retard either. Sounded like it was coming from the driver side valve cover. So I checked all the studs with a screwdriver with it running and nothing. When I did the cam swap, I checked all the springs, lifters, etc. and everything was perfect on mine. Did notice two Pro Mags with a little more side to side play than others so I swapped them out. Noticablely less valve train noise, but tick is still there.

If it was an arching wire, it'd miss/run like *** more than likely. Mine definatly is not audible for the first 30 seconds or so of run time, but as it heats up you can hear it better...

 

A real easy way to tell. Put the car in a high gear at slow speed and press on the gas to see if the tick gets louder.
The last thing it could be is a bad lifter(s). If you are confident it's not that either then what you describe is the most mysterious sound ever to plague the small block Chevy.

 

Im thinking lifters, but it seems like I should be able to hear the noisey rocker on vlave with the bad lifter, but I cant seem to narrow it down once I get the valve cover off. (rockers are not hitting the valve cover)

 

Does it sound anything like this?





If so it could be a loose torque converter bolt, that's what mine was.

 

That sounds exactly what I ran into with my new 383. I made a few posts on here and did an extensive search and didnt find any answers. I've also been all over the car with a stethoscope, took it to a friends shop to use the lift and neither of us could find it. I also took it to the shop that did my dyno tuning and he couldn't find it either. When I'm parked in my yard over dirt, I can barely hear it, though when I'm inside the car it's fairly pronounced. It also get's a lot more noticable when the engine is deceleration. It was causing some slight timing retard on deceleration.

I even pulled the engine back out, checked the cylinder walls and bearings and found nothing wrong. I readjusted the valves from 1/4 turn, 1/2 turn, 3/4 turn and a full turn and it made no difference in the noise, so I put it back to a quarter turn.

I'm using comp pro mag rockers, so I can only assume these things are just noisy as hell. I went ahead and got it dyno'd and it did fine, so I'm just gonna drive it with this annoying *** tick. I've got 2,000 miles on it now with no other problems whatsoever except the noise

If you can't figure out what it is and the car still runs ok, I'd just let it go. I think the best way to describe this **** is like what SS RRR said, it's the most mysterious sound ever to plague the sb chevy.

Here's a video I took before I took the motor out for a second time.
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...boveengine.flv
Here's the video from the dyno, you can't hear anything once it's reved up.
http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y21...rstDynoRun.flv