Ticking noise

[tanny]

How can you distinguish between a valve train ticking noise and an exhaust leak ticking noise? Coming from rear of engine. Wasn't able to isolate with a stethoscope, my nose, or valve adjustment. Very clear ticking noise at at idle, not distinguishable at speed. Thanks, Victor.

[Bambikiller240]

Originally posted by tanny

How can you distinguish between a valve train ticking noise and an exhaust leak ticking noise? Coming from rear of engine. Wasn't able to isolate with a stethoscope, my nose, or valve adjustment. Very clear ticking noise at at idle, not distinguishable at speed. Thanks, Victor.

Hi Victor:

I've been having a bit of a similar issue on my car. Unfortunately I cannot isolate the cause or location either. Adjusted the valves twice, used a stethoscope too. For my car I'm now leanig towards a slight warp to the used exhasut manifold that I bought for the rebuilt engine being the cause. When it warms up, I'm gonna switch back to my original ex. manifold & see if the noise goes away.

Do you have any broken/loose manifold studs on the engine?

[ZmeFly]

Is tightening down the manifold bolts at either end to see if it helps, you may also want to try while the engine is cold some soapy water or something that will bubble if you think its the manifold.

It should be evident with something like that right away .

[Zrush]

My first Z was a 1978 280Z. When I brought it home the first thing my mother said was that it sounded like a sewing machine!!! I guess she had the right to say that because she drove a 1975 Caddy with a 502. Kinda really made me mad, as I was so proud of my cherry Z. Come to find out it was an gasket leak on the manifold. Tightening the bolts cured the ticking. Had the same problem with my 1973 Mach I, but that was noisy lifters.

Even after the ticking fix, mother still said my Z sounded like a sewing machine. Parents can be so cruelLOL

[tanny]

Zrush- should have challenged her to a race through the mountains, although mountains might be tough to find in Florida.

Carl- No broken studs.

ZmeFly- Hadn't thought of the suds on a cold engine trick. Good idea. I'll give that a try, but I'll have to take off the heat shield first.

Thanks everyone. Victor.

[Mark Schue]

I had a ticking noise on my Z. I kept adjusting valves to no avail. Turned out the lash pads were worn. Milled them and adjusted the valves and no more ticking! Actually had a nice effect on the compression test!

[beandip]

phred the head guru recommended to me to use a exhost gasket form Motorsport , the heavy duty one because they are thicker . This is what he uses on the race engines and he says that they work the best with headers and dont fall apart if the header needs to be removed after a race. I ordered two a long as I was at it. Gary:classic:

[tanny]

When I rebuilt the engine a year ago I used a thick header gasket for my headers. Thanks, Victor.