GregWS6&z28

iTrader: (8)

well tonight after work I swapped out my spark plugs and I figured I'd pull the valve cover again to see if I could pinpoint anything on my ticking issues. My pushrods are not loose at all so they aren't bent, and I cannot push my rocker arms down any so it isn't a collapsed lifter. The only thing I found was that 3 rocker arms have some play to them. On my passenger bank, cylinder #2 intake rocker and cylinder #6 & #8's exhaust rockers can be wiggled about half a millimeter, enough that my hand moving them can make a slight noise. Now I checked the rocker bolts and they are tight, and are flush and also tight against the valve retainer, with no play up and down, only side to side as I mentioned (could be rocker pin bearings?). Do you think that this play could be enough to hear that ticking noise as you all have heard? (I hear it on top the intake area, but it resonated in the passenger wheel well and is louder) The new plugs helped some rough idle issues but not 100%, so something else could still be the matter. I'm thinking more and more that it could be my oil pump o-ring thats smashed out and allowing some air blow by. There is a service bulletin on it and the issues sound like mine minus the fact I'm not losing any oil pressure. I cant really tell if it's a bad injector because I've ran cleaners through the fuel system (GM Top end cleaner also.) It could explain my rough idle though. Any ideas at all? Thanks for reading guys

JimMueller

iTrader: (9)

It seems I had the same problem as you, except intermittently from the driver side wheelwell. It's too early to tell, but I swapped in some Comp OEM lifters over the weekend. I haven't heard the noise come back yet. However, a visual inspection of the old lifters only shows very minor scoring on the rollers. My oil pressure was/is fine. The reason I changed the lifters was because I saw some glitter in the bottom of my oil filter, combined with the noise, got me concerned. I hadn't read about pushing down on the pushrod to check for a collapsed lifter, but I at least have partial peace of mind now

Everything else was fine. I did miss a shift bad about a month or so ago, but I guess the valve reliefs saved me there. No marks on the pistons nor valves indicating they kissed. I did notice that my TR6's (installed last Easter) were very inconsistently gapped (.03-.055). We just put them in as-is originally, but I re-gapped them all to .035 (compression is ~11.25).

I'm going to order new injectors in short order as well. Besides just being old, I'm on the verge of needing bigger ones anyway.

If you resolve it, send me a PM if you think about it. Just in case mine returns

frey51

Yeah man, that sounds like it could definatly be your rockers bearings. Have you found any on your oil plug?

GregWS6&z28

iTrader: (8)

yea it could still be lifters...i have an automatic so I shouldnt have done anything else to hurt the motor... I'd like to swap out the lifters but it'd be too much work I think...

A majority of the time a shop changes my oil so i never get to inspect it, so I'm not sure if anything has ever come out. Should I get aftermarket rockers? I have some stock LS1 rockers back at home but at the same time that motor was making the same noise, just not as loud, so changing the rockers out could still result in the same problem if thats what was causing the ticking..... it's pissing me off, it runs good but just that god awful tick tick tickity tick tick :-(
thanks for your responses

1999T/A

iTrader: (4)

I had the same problem . It was the loudest around the intake for some reason , got louder just like yours underneath the passenger side . It turned out for me to be a lifter that was in the process of grenading .I would drain the oil in something clean and look at the drain plug for pieces of metal or shavings . I had a TON of shavings on mine. I talked with Jeff Creech at CAM and he told me about the substandard lifters that were used in these motors simply because they ran out of the good ones to use . The #6 exhaust lifter was the culprit in mine . If I would have looked at it before it got bad I could have possibly saved the motor . I hope yours isnt messed up like mine was .If it is a lifter it will get louder and louder as the cam lobe grinds it up . Check it as soon as you can , my rockers werent loose either until half of the lifter was ground up and deposited in the oil pan . Hope this helps a little . . .

GregWS6&z28

iTrader: (8)

well that sounds exactly where I'm at. The only thing is that there is a smidgin of play in my rockers side-to-side, enough that when the valvetrain is moving those 3 rocker arms could be enough to make the ticking noise... but mine is pretty loud, my cam lobes could already be ground up but there's no play in my valvetrain up or down when i try to wiggle it. Maybe it's a good excuse for a cam/lifters/springs upgrade... I'll try to get a video clip later
so someone can hear it more closely...just need a host for it

thanks for the responses guys!