The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop ticktickk

Ticking and clicking can be maddeningly hard to find and are often of no consequence unless they get worse over time. One trick is to pull the valve cover and check around each rocker, valve and pushrod with a length of 1/4 inch rubber tubing with one end stuck in your ear. Another trick is to use a long thin screwdriver pressed against your head behind your ear and probe around with that. DO NOT do this in the vicinity of the fan. You can also buy a mechanics stethiscope for the same use as the screwdriver. It's safer. The tube method can be used to probe around for possible exhaust leaks too. Check all along the head/exhaust manifold interface and, in your case, also check around the tubes that duct exhaust heat from the exh manifolds into the bottom of the intake manifold. Do this cold and hot. Mine started leaking after about ten years and required another turn on the fittings to tighten them. Check both down-pipe flange gaskets when cold and when hot. Ticking also comes up the throttle linkage to the gas pedal from the pivot on the side of the block. There is also the possibility of spark jumping from a plug wire to ground but that is usually associated with a miss on one or more cylinders. Good luck and happy hunting.