So I have a ticking...

toml

toml

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I've been searching and searching today, after I noticed the slight ticking my engine makes seems to have become louder. It's always made a slight tick, which I'd just put down to the injector noise.

It sounds, to me, like the ticking/tapping is in the head, not a bottom end thing (i'm preying its not rod knock). It seems to be all the way through the rev band, and the frequency increases as the RPM does.

My current train of thought is that the valve shims are worn and need replacing, but I wanted to get an opinion from the SM experts before tearing off my cam covers.

ps, Not sure whether these make a difference, but: today when I noticed the ticking was louder than usual I also noticed a slight stream of light white smoke coming from the exhaust side of the engine, around cyl 2 or 3. Either this is some oil that's leaked from somewhere and getting burnt off, or there's an exhaust leak. Also, the engine has trouble starting when it is cold -- cranks fine, but just won't start.

Any opinions would be great. I'll try and snap a video of the engine -- I took one today but the camera didn't pick up the sound properly.

Cheers,
Tom

Forgot to mention: This is a obviously a 7m-gte -- it's done around 10,000km since a bottom end rebuild (BHG -> new pistons, arp studs, metal headgasket, etc).
 
toml

toml

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Well the gasket was brand new 10,000km ago and all the exhaust studs were helicoiled and replaced... but its possible that it has become loose or something.

Would a bad exhaust manifold gasket cause any of the other above symptoms other than the white smoke?
 
miggles

miggles

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exh gasket leak you can feel if your brave enough with your fingers, or hold some strip of paper and see if it flaps around (ignoring the fact the fan will blow it around some) or see if there is any black carbon buildup form exh leaks.
I hope its just valve shims. Your new motor has oilpressure and enough oil im sure.
 
toml

toml

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Yes I've been keeping plenty of oil in it and its never lost oil pressure so I'm hoping its just the shims too. :)

If I rip off the cam covers and replace the shims, is there any 'performance' mods I should look at doing whilst they're off? aftermarket cams, timing gears etc? I was considering taking the head off, porting it, putting in oversized valves etc.. but i'm not sure whether its worth it yet.
 
toml

toml

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I dunno how the hell I could've blown a brand new 2mm HKS metal head gasket with ARP studs on stock 4.5psi boost, but shit, I hope I haven't!

Edit: Just noticed Allan's post says 'MHG' not 'BHG'... was that a typo or was there some drawback to a metal HG that I wasn't aware of which could cause "Bad Things" ?
 
Last edited:
jdub

jdub

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Re-torque your studs while you got the cam covers off...check the torque on the cam retainers too.
 
toml

toml

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But is that a bad thing Ian?

I would've thought oil pressure a bit above average wouldn't be a problem - except everything is completely stock! So either my old oil pump has just hit a mid-life crisis and started exercising more, or something seems wrong... ?

By the way, if my valve shims aren't quite right - is this going to cause any detrimental effect on the engine? (other than just making this noise)
And could someone point me to where in the TSRM it mentions how to check them with my feeler gauge?

Thanks all!
 
I

IJ.

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Mar 30, 2005
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Tom: Not at all good idle pressure is a bonus!
(sort of wondering why though as most 7M's are a good bit lower)

As long as it's not clattering badly a bit of valvetrain noise isn't going to hurt anything and is better/safer then them being tight.

It's worth getting it checked and reshimmed if needed.
(You can check it yourself with a set of feeler gauges)
 
T

tkvtec

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Mar 16, 2006
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if there is a leak in your exh manifold gasket it will make any engine noises louder. My valves tick like crazy, but they're just fine. The guy that built my head is fairly reputable with 7m motors in the area holding over 600-700 hp on his work. He prefers to leave them a bit "loose" for safety reasons as IJ mentioned. Of course, I have oversized valves, cams, dual springs, etc..., but that shouldn't matter too much.
 
toml

toml

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IJ. said:
Tom: Not at all good idle pressure is a bonus!
(sort of wondering why though as most 7M's are a good bit lower)

As long as it's not clattering badly a bit of valvetrain noise isn't going to hurt anything and is better/safer then them being tight.

It's worth getting it checked and reshimmed if needed.
(You can check it yourself with a set of feeler gauges)
Click to expand...

Must've been my awesome engine building skills (hahaha) that gave me extra oil pressure. :biglaugh:

It doesn't seem to be clattering too bad - I'll try and get a video up.

So basically the only way I can be certain this noise is not 'dangerous' is by pulling off the cam covers and checking the distance between cam lobes and lifter shims?

Thanks all - been a big help. :)
 
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