Hi everyone I have a 94z 6spd with stock manifolds and am experiencing a ticking noise when the engine is cold. You can hear it inside the car, and it gets louder as I accelerate. Once the engine is warm, the ticking noise goes away. Also, are these motors generally loud because with the hood open I can hear alot of valvetrain noise and slight ticking, which sounds like the lifters/injectors. Thanks for any help!

 

Sounds like you have an exhaust leak. Might be a lifter but I then again maybe not.

 

I will throw out some possiblities. I would say it could be a lifter, injector possibly, or an exhaust leak. After i did headers the bolts backed out once and i tightened them up after that i would have a loud ticking sound on cold start ups. When i pulled my motor this summer i looked at my copper header gaskets and they had been leaking. I would vote exhaust leak as old as these cars are getting and as high mileage a lot of them are i wouldn't be surprised if the manifold gaskets were leaking.

 

I don't know what it is but from what I hear Lucas Oil can stop engine ticks, just a thought.

 

lifter or exhaust leak.

 

sounds like a lifter.

 

So it goes away when hot? I'd say exhaust leak.

 

my car was doing that. And I could hear it ticking. for 1 I have an exhaust leak. But the noise was a little different. So I pulled of driver side valve cover off. And I turned to motor on and listened. And shure enought it was the rockers. They arent loose though. The rockers and injectors make some noise, and its normal. You will find that rockers and lifters will do this till the car warms up.

Best way to tell if its a exhaust leak, is see if the tick is almost making the noise at the same tone as the exhaust. Because if it is a rocker or lifter , it will be much faster then the exhaust note. Just my .02..

 

A lot of LT1s experience a little bit louder than normal ticking when cold, some have mentioned it's minor piston slap. If you keep the rpms below 17-1800 for the first few minutes after starting your engine cold, you probably don't hear this sound do you?

With my LT1, I hear a very slight ticking noise at about 1800rpm and up when the engine is cold, but if I keep the rpms below this point for the first few minutes, I hear nothing out of the ordinary. It's not a major ticking, just slightly more noticable. Perfectly harmless too.

 

I've never heard anything about any piston slap with LT1s.

 

Our stock lifters in our cars are not anti-pump like aftermarket so you will hear lifter noise at startup, mine got worse after putting rollers in but as soon as the car is warmed up the noise decreases and all I hear are the rockers ticking, gets worse when it's cold out too.

 

I haven't heard it mentioned lately either, but when I got my first LT1, a 95TA which I got in Jan 96, they mentioned it a lot on the f-body mailing list back then. It's not a major amount of piston slap like LS1 owners report, but there were quite a few guys who mentioned they heard their engines ticking a little louder than usual when cold if they didn't keep the rpms low during warmup.