So I purchased an 01 Trans am 6 months ago. It has been making a ticking noise ever since I got it, but it has been getting progressively worse. I Am pretty sure at this point it has a bad lifter/s because the oil pressure is a bit low in idle and the sound is coming from the passenger side of the engine.. I don't know enough to get in there and actually fix it though so I took it to a shop with a good reputation and they told me it would be 13 hours of labor to diagnose it & fix it. 13 hours x $90 an hour = $1170. This is wayy expensive right? From what I've read it should be 3-4 hours of labor? And suggestions? Or am I wrong and it really does take that much time to go through and check it out.. Also I have already tried a full synthetic oil change + Used an oil treatment.

tl;dr: Got quoted 13 hours of labor to fix ticking from engine which I suspect is bad lifters, Is this a rip off? Suggestions?

 

post up a video so everyone can hear it. it may not be lifters, if it is 1170 may be a little high. it is a big job though def not a 3-4 deal. on an ls you have to pull the heads for lifters

 

That's a job allright.Yanking the intake and cylinder heads.

 

Thats about what I was quoted from an ls shop around here. I just did the job myself in a couple of days working a couple of hours each day. i will say it is a job and not for the beginner mechanic. You will need to rent a couple of tools from the parts store but they refund all your money so its no big deal.

 

what tools might I need for the job? And got any good instructions? I got a bad ticking, you can see it in my last post, i almost have the valve covers off and I’ll be checking to see what they look like soon

 

Your replying to an age old thread and you MIGHT get more responses by starting up a new one. That's not always the case either so here's my take. You don't need any special tools other than quality torque wrenches in foot pounds and inch pounds. As stated you will have to pull the intake and heads in order to change the lifters and doing this in an Fbody car although doable is a PITA so be prepared to have the car down for an extended period of time. You'll have to loosen the exhaust and most likely remove the y-pipe before removing the exhaust manifold bolts but it may move around enough that you can just pull them back away from the heads. Hopefully you will not shear any manifold bolts off into the cylinder heads but if you do break one off its easy to remove once the head is off the motor. I don't much like stock head bolts and I strongly recommend putting it back together with ARP hardware which is stronger and utilize a final torque setting as opposed to a foot pound torque then an angle torque setting which would be another tool needed to get the proper clamping force. Inspect your rocker arms for excessive wear and make sure that your pushrods are straight, they measure out correctly and are in good condition before re-using, but personally I would go back together with a new set of PR's. I'd also be going back through the cylinder heads to clean and inspect the valves. If the valves are good to go then re-lap them on their valve seats and install a new set of springs and valve stem seals. You can always send them to a machine shop and pay them to go back through them. You'll need to replace the head gaskets, exhaust manifold gaskets, valve cover gaskets and intake manifold gaskets. That is if you don't want to be cheap about it and have the possibility of having to go back through this again because you chose to be cheap about it. Below is a link to most of the torque settings you'll need for the LS engine. GL

https://www.ls1howto.com/index.php?category=1