Got the car fired up today, it idles great. After about 5 minutes or so it starts to develope a tick on the passengers side. You can hear it best from under the car but up top its hard to tell where its coming from. The 1.6rr's were put at 1/2 preload so I hardly believe they are making the noise.

Is it typicall that a header leak would not be heard until the car warms up? It seems it was worse after I drove it a couple blocks and then came back. I will try tightening them down some more. Currently I am using felpro header gaskets.

 

Mine had a leak and after it warmed up the sound would slowly go away until it was almost unheard. I tightened my header bolts once a week until they they all were perfect. It took 3 times to get this to happen. If you think the RR's are to blame pull the valve cover and see what happens when the noise starts. I think the noise goes away after they warm up because the heat swells them a little to seal the leak. I would not think RR's sice the sound is best heard from below.

 

Sounds like a classic exhaust leak. Just keep tightening those header bolts and eventually they will seat. The tick could also be coming from your y-pipe, which is where mine is right now .

 

a lot of people mistake a exhaust leak for a lifter or rocker. an exhaust leak at the head will be a tick and further down the exhaust it will be more of a rumble

 

I'm thinking you need to check the rockers.

 

Check the rockers as in, re lash them all? Is it possible a plug to be arching? They are brand new wires so I can't really see it happening.

 

thats what i thought too...turns out one of the wires was arching on the water pump...go figure

 

See, I dont understand how plug wires arch when they are insulated? How the hell does this happen?

 

Well I drove it around and got it up on ramps while running. Still couldnt pin point it. It seems loudest under the car by the passenger header and oil pan. Using a long screw driver I listened to the valve cover in 4 diff areas, and the primaries...nothing really. The only thing which resembled the noise close was the injectors.

I confirmed it's not plug wires since I looked in the dark. If I pull injector wiring harness while its running for a few seconds would it be real bad on the engine?

All the header bolts on the that side are just a tight as they were orignally, haven't loosened up or anything but I still made sure they were all pretty dang tight.

 

check the heat shields as mine were rattling also.

 

I had a really hard to find tick on my car last summer and it turned out that one of the header tubes was leaking slightly at the flange where the weld was - I pulled the header and repaired the inside of the tube and that fixed it. It almost drove me nuts trying to find it though.

 

Thanks for the replies, the thing is...It only starts after the car gets warmed up. And if its warmed up and then I turn it off....then wait a few minutes and turn it back on it won't start agan for 10 seconds or so. I bought a stethoscope and If I put it on the last primary its a little louder there, on the valvecover its even a little louder. So I am suspecting its a rocker in that back corner. The thing that gets me is why is it louder under the car if it indeed is a rocker? Would that echo through the exhaust or something? Does that make any sense?