In the last few days I have been hearing this clicking sound at idle that to my memory has never been there. It sounds like it is coming from the driverside bank of cylanders and closer to the front of the cylander head/ valve cover. But I'm not sure if it is rocker or valve related or if it is the egr peice, the valve looking thingy, that is attacted to the driverside exhaust manifold. I put a screw driver up against the egr valve and to my ear and the clicking is very loud and pronounced. And I put a screw driver up to the cylander head and to my ear and the clicking is faintly, faintly there. The same results came from the valve cover also.

What do you guys think?

My engine is all stock except for a borla cat-back. The 96' Z28 car has 67,0XX miles and isnt driven really hard either. It is a daily driver for the most part, when im not riding my buell. The A4 car shifts at 6K rpm at WOT and only hits that rpm level usually once a week, sometimes not even, never more than 3 times a week though.

Thanks in advance.
Much appreciated

 

have the same problem...i mean driver side and everything....let me know what u find out....thanks man

 

take off the valve covers...driver's is really easy. you dont even have to take off any belts or anything....any way. check valve lash. if you go to any parts store, ask for the lash kit. they're little plugs you put in the rockers to keep oil from spraying everywhere.

once you get the parts, remove the cover. put the plugs on, start the car. listen to the valves/pushrods. you can actually tighten the rockers for lash. dont run too long with the plugs in or you'll burn something up. i'd say no more than about 5 minutes without putting oil on them. you should be able to adjust all 8 rockers on one side...in one sitting...before having to shut the car off and put the cover back on.

of if you dont want to do that, follow the chiltons' manual for doing it by hand, turning the crank and doing each cyl at a time.

 

Would I have to replace the valve cover seal if I took the cover off?

 

No, the valve cover gaskets are reusable.
Just make sure that they seat well, or you might dump oil on your headers durring hard cornering; you know when this happens cuz the whole street is full of white smoke that has been roasted off your headers haha, thats what I get for letting a shop work on my car.

 

The rockers will not splash oil with the engine running at dile speed. Mine does not make any mess when setting lash. Yes it has good oil pressure.

 

Lay a piece of cardboard across from the edge of the head to the fender. Then you wont get any oil on your exhaust/headers if you have them.

My car does this sometimes. It IS coming from the fitting going into the exhaust manifold. This is for your air pump, not EGR. It has a little one-way flapper kinda valve in it. Mine sometimes makes a clicking noise, other times its silent.

 

HardcoreRM125 you are right. The car didnt chatter today. Its like it goes on and off. I had a few of my friend listen to it yesterday and they all agree that it isnt under the valve covers in any way. Thankgod, uneeded work=avoided