Name my Tick

I vote for the FI.

I vote header gasket, or header to mid-pipe connection.

strong smell of fuel ..... where?
ticking only at idle when cold, or always?

95strokerPSU said:

... I'll be doing the vacuum hose stethoscope this weekend.

Click to expand...

95strokerPSU,

My bet is a bad valve lifter.

Also, it’s much easier to test for noises using wood, really! I’ve done it a zillion times. A stethoscope or a length of rubber hose really does not work very well at all. (Sound travels much more efficiently through wood than it does air. You’ll be surprised.)

So, get an old wooden broom handle that you don't want and cut yourself a 3-foot length off the end of it. You want it at least that long so you can get your head far enough away from the engine when you are listening. If you don’t have an old broom to cut up, go to a hardware store and buy a 3-foot length of wooden dowel. Get one that is at least 1 inch in diameter.

Push the cut off end hard against the part, housing, or accessory on the engine you suspect is making the noise. You've got to make good solid contact. Push the other round end snuggly against the opening of your ear and cup your hand around it to act like a seal against outside noises. Then listen to the sound traveling up the wood from the accessory. (You need to push it against your ear pretty firmly to make sure the sound transfers properly.) You will be able to hear any noise coming from the part you are testing really clearly.

I’ve tracked down many engine noises using the old broomstick trick! You can even differentiate different sound pitches as well. If the sound you hear through your open ear matches the sound coming up the broomstick to your other ear, you’ve found the offending source of the noise.

Good luck.

Did you install the cross over tube for the emissions between the heads or did you plug them? The reason I ask is I had a similar noise and thought it was internal and had most of the top end tore down. Well I was just about to pull the heads off when I noticed something sticking out of the back of the drivers side head. Turns out the plug that I installed in the emissions port had backed out over time and was causing a huge exhaust leak that sounded like it was a lifter. Went to napa and bought a new plug and some loctite and stuck it back in and that was the end of my tick. My car had the same symptoms that you were decribing and I thought the worst and it ended up being simple and cheap.

loose spark plug?