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Small engine tick, HELP

kidSVT that is almost exactly what it sounds like.

what exactly was it? you said header gasket? as in the exhaust manifold gasket?

if that is correct then that makes sense as to why it still sounds like i have a small exhaust leak even though i did find one and fix it. i will look extensively into this.

i am testing today to see what i can find. id like to see if i can pinpoint something before i pull the pan. its got a fresh $50 oil change in it and i hate to pull the pan to find out it is not a bearing. that is the reason i am shying away from that as the last possible solution.

i will check the A/C compressor the problem is i have not run it in over 2 months now. (not charged)

you guys have given me some awesome directions. if anyone has any other videos of similar symptoms please post them.

Thanks for your patience.

will hopefully have eliminated some of these possibilities today. and hopefully find the problem.
 
about that... i only have the stock exhaust manifold on it and honestly with the hurry i was in(or the hurry i was put in) to get it finished i was lucky to get them tight. i will probably take them off and re-torque them later.

in the mean time. it should not be a rod knock. i havent pulled the pan but i spoke with my instructor, we did some tests and found that it is way too quiet to be a rod knock.
He told me it is probably piston slap or the exhaust idea. either way he explained that there is no immediate danger for the engine and to drive it the way it was intended (autocross). He said just listen to it every so often and make sure it does not get louder. It has been doing this for a while now and hasnt changed and i enjoy a little spirited driving so on that note it will probably be left alone for now.

A/C compressor: good
Water pump: good
Trans: chattering as usual

that is what we found. the sound is definitely coming from the engine but is not terminal at this moment.

thank you to all. if anyone has any ideas please let me know. otherwise i will update if anything changes. :)
 
Yes, mine was the front exhaust manifold gasket.. I (along with just about everyone else on the forums) thought it was the rod, but my mechanic came over and said it was an exhaust leak right off the back, he didn't even have to think about it. As far as determining if it is the manifold in the front or the back, I couldn't tell ya.. I'd assume its wherever the sound is coming from.

Also, my brother took a look at it before we got it fixed, and he said he could smell the exhaust leaking from the header, and he put is fingers down by the gasket, and could feel where exhaust was leaking. So if you think they sound the same, I'd get those gaskets checked.. $10 at advanced auto. hope that helps!
 
update:

sound has not got any louder however i have had another well educated tech listen to the noise and immediately he said it sounds like an injector tick.

has anyone had something like this?
 
When i first heard your video, it sounded like an injector tick. I had to eventually replace mine because the noise drove me crazy.:blackeye:

I'm going with the exhaust leak, but i honestly would rather hear this thing in person.

Good luck man. It seems your in good hands with your teacher. I hope you get this taken care of.
 
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so you have had an injector tick. i think that is what it is. it confirms all suspicions my teacher had. it is definitely coming from the top of the engine and the injectors i have are used so that makes perfect sense. it has all new gaskets all round so an exhaust leak is a little odd and i used a stethoscope to try and listen for any noise in the exhaust and just found normal sounds. im gonna try and get it on the injectors and see if they are singing or not. i think my exhaust leak is at my rear O2 sensor cause im throwing a code and my front one was giving me the same code for me to find that it was loose and leaking. so i am gonna get it on a lift and tighten the rear one and see what happens. im feeling much better about this now.

thank you for the reply
 
I had a very very similar engine noise on my 98 csvt, but got worst at 3k anything below that was ok and anything above that it was ok. It got louder and louder until it did it all the time. Turned out to be a spun rod bearing, and like and idiot I fixed it, waste of money. I don't know if you've addressed the oil baffling problem these engines have but on high g-force cornering the bearings get starved of oil, and that might of happened when you do your autocross so take that into mind. I'm a mechanic and I'm pretty certain its not an injector problem. You can't hear an injector tick that loud from the inside of the car, and if it were bad injectors it wouldnt go away and come back as you rev it. If you want to confirm it, grab a hold of a scanner if you can and do an injector kill test and see if the tick changes.
 
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that is helpful. i think i have confirmed it not to be a rod bearing. if it were it would have gotten a lot worse with my driving style. also i have not autocrossed with this engine yet and am well aware of the starvation issue. that is why i am confused. i regularly wrap the engine up to 7K RPM and sometimes higher so if it were a spun bearing it would have done a lot of spinning by now. the engine is freshly rebuilt from the ground up including clevite 77 main and rod bearings. i run royal purple 5W30 oil and put in 6.5 quarts just to make sure. i dont take cloverleafs at over 4K RPM as there is no need when the torque band is peaking at 4250 RPM or so.

this is why i have shy'd away from a bearing problem. i have been hearing this sound for at least a month if not since the engine was installed (just couldnt hear it over the straight out of the header exhaust then later a massive exhaust leak which i fixed just over a month ago)

id rather not pull the pan unless the sound deviates from 1250RPMs it hasnt moved and i have given the engine a real beating to try and get it to but it wont.

what do i need to go under in the computer to do an injector test? that interests me. what am i looking for it to do?

by the way the injectors are not new which is why to me it makes sense for them to be a primary suspect. the noise is not really very prominent my camera just happened to pick up that frequency perfectly. :laugh:

thank you nevis for your information. it is greatly appreciated and i hope to hear more from you.

thank you all as this is a very frustrating little tick!
 
i have the solution! the sound you are hearing in this video is indeed the injectors. injector number 1 to be exact. it is ticking like hell!

thank you all who posted replies with possible solutions. i feel much better now that i know it is not something detremental.
 
hey I have exactly the same problem. Although I recently changed my oil and filter (not the expensive kind). It started making clicking noises just like whats been mentioned and on the videos. I was going nuts trying to find the cause. So is it safe to say it can be bad oil and filter depriving the engine or injector tick? Is it safe to drive? Help is appreciated..thanks
 
Same problem here, glad to see you figured it out, i actually got a lean code on bank two EVERYONE was telling me it was a vacuum leak but what you described was the exact same thing i have, sounded like i was out of oil, checked and it was fine. Problem is i need to figure out what one it is, guess it wouldn't hurt to throw some cleaner maybe?
 
cashflow50 said:
hey i have exactly the same problem. Although i recently changed my oil and filter (not the expensive kind). It started making clicking noises just like whats been mentioned and on the videos. I was going nuts trying to find the cause. So is it safe to say it can be bad oil and filter depriving the engine or injector tick? Is it safe to drive? Help is appreciated..thanks
Click to expand...

03-25-2008 08:13 pm

just saying...
 
Smalls said:
03-25-2008 08:13 pm

just saying...
Click to expand...

I've got 03-25-2008 02:13 pm... but that's just me :laugh:

Hey no harm in bringing back a thread if it gets you the solution. It was kind of a good read even though I had seen it before.
 
CSVT#49 said:
I've got 03-25-2008 02:13 pm... but that's just me :laugh:

Hey no harm in bringing back a thread if it gets you the solution. It was kind of a good read even though I had seen it before.
Click to expand...

Well actually I did a search on 'ticking noise' and this thread were one of many that it spat out. lol..yup its an old one. At least I know that its not a major fix in the long run. Thanks for this awesome site.
 
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