9165pt0

been hearing a ticking noise, sounds like coming from rear of driver side valve cover/intake area. you can hear it at idle, and it gets louder under throttle. low pressure seems low at times as well. someone said it sounds like a loose rocker arm. i pulled the valve covers, and none of the rockers are loose. however some of them are sitting higher than others, id think due to valve position. is this normal, or should they all be even? ive had 2 exhaust shops count out and exhaust/header leaks, running out of ideas

mjr46

lifter may not be pumping up due to dirt or something of the sort

9165pt0

is there a way to verify a bad lifter without pulling the intake?

mattdel

Yeah. A proper check of rocker tightness would verify. Rotate the engine until the valves you wish to check are seated(up) and check them then. A collapsed lifter would be loose enough to make the pushrod almost fall out.

petrock

One thing to note is that hydraulic lifters will bleed down over time. I'm not sure how long though, but it is normal. So you want to check them within a few hours of the last time the car was running.

Its also common to mistake an exhaust leak for a lifter tick. Take a squirt bottle and fill it with water and a little bit of dish soap (enough to make it a little bit sudsy). Then, with the car running, squirt the water/soap mix all over the exhaust manifold. Then wait for bubbles to appear. Any place you find bubbles is an exhaust leak. It could be a bad gasket, cracked exhaust manifold or loose exhaust flange bolts. Good luck...

eb2gt

if none of the above is the problem look for a bent or broken push rod.
We had the end of push rod break off and had a tick like sound.