Car is a 97 SS w/ 37,000 miles, stock. Gets about 55psi oil pressure at startup when cold and runs fine. After it warms up for a few minutes oil pressure drops to 15-20psi and there is a slight tick. What do these symptoms sound like? Bad/collapsed lifter or possible spun bearing?? Its definitely not a header leak. What do you guys think?? HELP!!!!

 

I'll take a stab at this one...

You should probably switch to a thicker oil. When your engine heats up, the oil warms up with it. Oil thins out when it heats up..

Try throwing in one quart of 5w along with whatever you use now... See what happens.

 

Your oil pressure does not sound abnormal to me as long as it goes back up with higher rpms.

Try to isolate the sound as much as you can. Check for loose spark plugs and maybe go through adjusting the valves. If it is just a "tick", it's probably not too serious.

 

Car only does it when warm. Would the valves need to be adjusted on a stock car with stock valvetrain? If so, we could always give it a try. Is there any writeups on this procedure? Some locals have said its a spun bearing for sure but it doesnt seem logical. Car really has never seen many cold cold starts in winter, it was always driven in warm weather.

And another thing, can the lifters be taken out with just the intake/valve covers off, or do the heads have to come off also?

thAnkX!!!

 

A spun bearing usually gives a heavy knock, not a tick. Stock valve train or not, any engine can need an adjustment from time to time. How the car has been treated can have a lot to do with that. You can find various methods of valve adjustment on my Tech Page. Like I said, try to isolate the noise so you can be smart with your troubleshooting.

Heads do not have to come off to get to the lifters. Intake does.