Recently my car has started making a clicking/ticking like sound. Its ticks with the RPMs and also gets louder when the car is under loud. Its mostly noticeable at start up until the car is warm, and when the car is lugging like when you give it gas in 5th gear at low speeds. Any ideas?

 

Lifter hitting the valve cover maybe, id run that by the dealership and have it looked at.

 

Collapsed lifter. Could be bad injectors.

 

I asked a friend who said it was probably just an exhaust leak.

 

The S197's are notorious for noisey injectors; there's a TSB on it but the dealership will tell you that yours is normal. If it's not injectors then it could be something in the valve train. Be sure you're running the correct viscosity oil. Too thin an oil will cause a bit more valve train noise.

 

Its made the sound for about 5 days now on cold morning and after hour long warm drives. If it is a collapsed lifter, what caused it and how do i fix it. I've done all my mods myself, but if i had to take it somewhere what is involved and how much should it cost?

Also, I did change my oil recently with 5w20 as well, but the sound started nearly a week after.

 

So if it is a collapsed lifter, how bad would it be to drive it like that?

 

Bad very bad, walking the line of engine failure...

 

So I took my car into Ford to have them diagnose it and it turned out to be an exhaust leak. One of the manifold bolts sheered off in the block on the drivers side. Then offered a reasonable price to fix it so I went ahead and told then to do it. So far its taken them 2 weeks to diagnose and fix the leak, saying that the bolts needed to soak over night and very very difficult to get out with hand tools. Also said they had to strait iron the headers because they were warped. Just waiting on a replacement gasket to ship now so they can put it all back together (American muscle said a stock gasket would fit... they were wrong).

I should have made a video of the sound my car was making, but i didn't get around to it. Is sounded a lot like this