May I have a bad lifter?

[Synned]

Might I have a bad lifter?

My car constantly sounds like a diesel truck. I hear it more noticably when I am in a garage, or around walls that echo back. It happens under slight load when I am accelerating, I don't know if it happens during WOT I think my exhaust drones it out. The faster I go the faster I hear this 'tick'. I can't really describe it better than a tick. Its like chugga chugga chugga chugga.
I am almost positive it is not an exhaust leak because I have had this problem before any exhaust work was done.
The rockers are not tapping, I used a stethoscope on the valve covers and hardly heard anything. If I start out in second gear instead of first from a stop and lightly get on it, I hear it the most.
Could this be a bad lifter? I also have a slight misfire pretty much all the time...

 

[final5-0]

If you used the scope ... they work great don't they ... you would think you could hear a lifter that had a wee bit too much slack.

Perhaps when you get more rpm ... one starts to complain a little.

Have you tried to rev it up while standing next to it and see if the noise occurs?

Grady

 

[Synned]

If you used the scope ... they work great don't they ... you would think you could hear a lifter that had a wee bit too much slack.

Perhaps when you get more rpm ... one starts to complain a little.

Have you tried to rev it up while standing next to it and see if the noise occurs?

Grady

I think what I need to do is get someone hold the break and gas it up while I listen, because it doesn't happen in neutral or park AT ALL.
When I used the scope the car was at idle in park and I didn't hear a thing out of ordinary.

Well I just went outside and tested....
no load on the car = silent.

With a load on the car, (e-brake up and me revving it from the motor...just a little dangerous )
a tapping or chugging noise was present.
I oculd not pinpoint the noise with a stethescope.
While driving, in 2nd or 3rd gear the noise is most noticable with a tiny amount of gas.
I'm suspecting an exhaust leak at the headers or h pipe. But would that not make noise under load?

 

[HISSIN50]

Joe, yours and Grady's wise words were what I was thinkin too. The second gear (lugging a hair) test was a little telling to me.

Though a long shot, put your scope on the AIR pump. I'm the king of burning through those things (I need to put a WTB thing in my sig - wait, I've never had a sig. so I can get a couple more). Anyhow, the bushings on the sides of the vanes start to fail and the vanes (which follow an elliptical pathway) side load against the wall and scrape. The result can be a ticking noise.

If you happen to enjoy a nice stogie upon occasion , blowing some smoke around the header flange and collector can help reveal a leak.

Good luck bud.

 

[rockin_rick]

Lugging with high load - I'd guess detonation or pre-ignition. Try retarding the spark a lot and see what happens.

Rick

 

[Synned]

Lugging with high load - I'd guess detonation or pre-ignition. Try retarding the spark a lot and see what happens.

Rick

I know what detonation sounds like...its not that.
It sounds much more like an exhaust leak.

 

[MI95Cobra]

is your oil light on??? if it came on you might have a bent pushrod, it would sound just like a lifter messed up, because it would throw off your lifter and rocker arm....

 

[Synned]

is your oil light on??? if it came on you might have a bent pushrod, it would sound just like a lifter messed up, because it would throw off your lifter and rocker arm....

No, but come to think of it right before I changed my oil last time the oil light was on. But its not now.

 

[MI95Cobra]

when i had my 92 gt, i rebuilt my motor from the block up....cam, heads, intake, i was buying things a little at a time...it was a good thing to....anyways i was going to do the same thing and rebiuld my motor on my vacation time, but after i got off work 1 day i heard a ticking sound and my oil light was on...i thought right away that it was my lifter....when i got home i decided to take off my upper intake and valve cover and saw that it was infact a bent pushrod....then talking it over with my brother we thought maybe it was a lifter also....so since i had all this stuff anyway, i went and put all the stuff on my car in 2 days(i just so happened to be off work for 2 days)...

 

[reddy351]

If the engine is rocking on a weak or broken engine mount that would cause an intermittent exhaust leak.