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Old 11-05-2010, 10:54 PM
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i have an 01 camaro ss and it has a tick in the motor the car runs great.just at idle it has the tick. the guy i got it from said he thought it has a rod bearing going out. but the oil psi is good it dont go below 40 psi. so i was thinking maybe it just might need a valve ajustment. any ideas?? thanks
Old 11-05-2010, 11:37 PM
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Is the engine internally stock?

Does it have headers?

How many miles on the engine?

No valve adjustment should ever be needed on a stock LS1. That's not to say that valve related parts can't fail (rockers, lifters), but aside from replacing anything that breaks, a stock valvetrain should be 100% maintenance free.

- Some injector tick is normal for LS1s.

- LS1s in general are not super quiet motors. The valvetrain tends to have a bit of sewing maching type "ticking" noise, even when stock. If you have an aftermarket cam & valvetrain, this noise tends to get much louder.

- Piston slap is also very common for LS1s, seems to be worst on '01-'02 engines in my experiance. Sometimes people confuse this sound for lifter tick or rod knock.

- If you have headers and your factory AIR system is still intact, it's very possibile that the AIR check valves are fluttering, causing a tick at idle. This can be cured by either deleting the AIR system or using restrictor plates where the AIR tubes attach to the header primaries. Additionally, even if you delete AIR, having headers in general will increase the audiable mechanical noise of the engine, some mistake this for a problematic "tick" as well.

Just some things to consider. It's hard to know what's really going on without hearing it in person.
Old 11-06-2010, 12:20 AM
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the car is all stock um it has the lsp intake,exhaust and diff but other then that its all stock. it has 122k on it.with piston slap cant u hear it in all rpm? how would u find out if a lifter,rocker failed? just tear it down.
Old 11-06-2010, 01:10 AM
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Originally Posted by Randall pond
with piston slap cant u hear it in all rpm?
Normally this is just audiable at idle. My '02 has a pretty bad case of piston slap, always has (currently at 98k miles). It's never gotten any better or worse, doesn't burn any oil and runs great, so I don't worry about it. You can only hear it at idle.

Originally Posted by Randall pond
how would u find out if a lifter,rocker failed? just tear it down.
Often times when a rocker falls apart you'll find needle bearings stuck to the oil drain plug magnet. Or you can pull the valve covers and inspect them. A lifter would be harder to diagnose.
Old 11-06-2010, 09:20 PM
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i got thinking about it and im thinking it is piston slap i went and started the car today and u could hear it from start up and idle to about 1,500 rpm. ill just keep an ear on it if it gets worse ill just build a new motor. so thanks man
Old 11-07-2010, 03:31 PM
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if the tick goes away when it gets warm its just piston slap. Mine takes a while for it to fully go away but when at operating temp the noise is completely gone. Bad lifters, rods, bearings and such ===> sound will never go away.
Old 11-07-2010, 04:32 PM
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- If you have headers and your factory AIR system is still intact, it's very possibile that the AIR check valves are fluttering, causing a tick at idle. This can be cured by either deleting the AIR system or using restrictor plates where the AIR tubes attach to the header primaries. Additionally, even if you delete AIR, having headers in general will increase the audiable mechanical noise of the engine, some mistake this for a problematic "tick" as well.
n
thats a relief!! thanks man
Old 11-08-2010, 10:10 PM
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mine depends on the day lol. one time it will do it then it wont. so im just going to go with a new motor and rebuild this one and find out what it is. but i know its not a rod bearing cuz iv owned a supra and that and head gaskets are comin in the older 7mgte inline six.lol
Old 11-08-2010, 11:24 PM
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I just went though a huge "ticking" fiasco with my car. I had just installed headers and a y-pipe and everything was fine. Then after a couple months I started having a "ticking" sound. It was coming from the passenger side of the engine. I tightened all of the header bolts with no luck. People kept telling me it was either a bad lifter or an exhaust leak. I took my y-pipe apart and put it back together at least 5 different times and it still didn't work. I was at my wits end and was about to pull off my valve cover to check the lifters when I read a thread that it could be a loose spark plug.

I checked spark plugs 5,6, and 8 and they were all fine. They were all tight as a rock, I didn't want to check the #7 plug cause it is the most pain in the *** to get to in my engine. I decided to do it instead of taking off the valve cover and the #7 plug was loose! Not much, just half a turn. I tightened it and the tick vanished! I was so excited I was on my knees thanking god! LOL.



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