I took out my car last night and while I was going through my gears, my engine shut off while I was between 3rd and 4th. I pulled over to see what was up and I didnt look like anything was leaking. I went to start it back up and it had a hard time starting. It finally started the second try and then I heard a ticking noise from under my valve cover. I was wondering if anyone had a clue what that was. If it was a rocker arm, push rod, or maybe a lifter. The car idles fine but when I start giving it more throtle the ticking gets louder and faster. If anyone has had a problem like this or might know what it is let me know.

 

Well I would take the time to make sure nothing came loose on the valvetrain. Also a good thing to do before you even do that is to just drain the oil and look for any metal flakes etc.

 

I can't even sleep tonight so i'm on here looking for anwers... being my only transportation and not many resources i'm praying I didn't screw my car up too bad... I'm hoping for something simple like a bent pushrod...

I checked the oil from the dip stick, and all looks normal... I'll have to look more into the drain plug thing. It's more of a "clakity clack" sound is the best way I can describe it... No engine codes, and a slight "whirring" noise while on the throttle... best way I can describe it is almost like a whistle but more like a charging of something electrical if that makes since....

I was able to hobble it home not getting the RPM's above 2k and it made it fine, but the noise was definately audible the whole way and increased with RPM's...

I know i fucked up something, just scared as **** to what...

 

Well buddy, my clankity clank noise was a lifter. At idle it was very faint, once it was revved it was louder and when the rpms dropped the noise was terrible. If this is you, then you my friend have a big problem. I did mine, but I put the 241 heads on and a new cam. When my car was on the dyno it stopped getting enough oil on the driver side. So i have a new oil pump and o-ring to go in there.

 

clicking noises are not good. if i understand the noise right, a rod. Prob Number 6! same thing happen to me. But by chance was it 3rd gear to 2nd at high rpms?

 

sounds like a rocker arm went loose.

 

your car made it home ?, It's daylight lift off the valve covers !

 

Maybe a broken valvespring too.

 

well I just "woke up" after getting like no sleep from this... Gonna head over to my buddies house where my car is today and take a look at what kinda damage I caused... I'll see if he has a camera for some pics, otherwise I can always use my good ole camera phone...

 

pushrod? or piston rod?

 

Rocker arms are also known to spit out needle bearings.

 

Your car is stock power with 13000 miles on it. How bad have you thrashed it and at what rpms where you at when the episode happened? Sounds like a pushrod clacking or maybe its a rod although it would be very loud. I threw a rod and still drove it for a while so its not impossible. Not in this motor but a chevy 350. Collapsed lifter maybe? Post pics of what you find

 

well we just pulled the valve cover and from what we can tell everything looks ok... wiggled all the rockers by hand and they really didn't move any... some very VERY slight clicking when wiggling from side to side, but I think that's normal as they weren't really loose or anything...

next up we are gonna pull the rockers and check the pushrods out... if that isn't the problem then I guess we are gonna pull the head

One question... if I do have a bad lifter... wouldn't that make play in the rocker arms when wiggling them?

 

We drove it pretty hard last night, but we were probably at about 4500 RPM's when this happened with the throttle floored...

on a side note... we started the car up this morning, it started right up, no hesitation like last night... And we really didn't hear the clicking anymore either... once I pulled it into the garage I think I might have heard the ticking a little echoing off the walls but am not totally sure as I parked it and killed the engine...

 

2 bent pushrods so far!

Pics to come... gonna take off the passenger side valve cover to check all those pushrods first...

what pushrods do you guys recommend? I know people say go with the stockers as they would rather bend a pushrod than a valve or whatever else, so I'm probably gonna go that way over Hardened Chromoly... but the stockers are like $287.00 when I see Summit carries a ton of different ones from $30-$400

 

Here's one of em...

 

Holy **** are you effin serious!!!!! That thing is trashed hahahaha.

I would be relieved finding that though to be honest. Now you know what the problem is and dont have to sweat it anymore.

 

****, I had a set of stockers laying around for months and I think I tossed them in the trash a month back. I'll look, if I have them I'll shoot you a PM.

 

How are you going to diagnose a car when alls you have had is an explanation. People can make assumptions but not hard facts. I hate it when people come on saying things like you, oh its your #6 connecting rod that is knocking lol. And why would 2nd and 3rd gear make any difference???

And as far as the original poster goes that push rod is bent hella bad! As far as your mods go you could prob get away with stockers, but it might be smart to go with some TSP Hardened Push Rods for good measure.

 

I got some stockers from an '04 Z06 that should work from Ryne Cunningham at Cunningham Motorsports... just got back from picking them up...

do I need to oil these new pushrods? I just ask cuz that means another trip out to the store... otherwise I was just wondering if the oil from the journals is fine for start up and then i'm sure the oil would pump in there and coat em nice afterwards...???