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Help with intermittent ticking

Elite6

Elite6

New member
Have had no problems with the car lately except yesterday, started the car and heard a distinct ticking i have never heard before (loud and varies with RPM). I figured after warmup it would go away with oil pressure increasing... I drove for 2 hrs straight on the highway with the tunes on didn't notice anything. I get off the highway and the ticking is still there loud and clear!

I shut the car off pull the dipstick and see some white residue on cap (but I already knew the LIM gasket needs to be done). I let the car sit over night, next morning fire it up major ticking, then suddenly after 10 minutes of driving the ticking goes away. Shut off the car for 40 minutes then fire back up and no ticking, drive 1 hr and still no ticking.

What could be causing the intermittent ticking & is it related to the LIM gasket?
 


Lifter is sticking... Possibly from oil issue, coolant in oil (white stuff) from failing Lim gasket... Just a guess.

;)
 
If the ticking is a lifter, is it likely I will need to replace all the lifters? Where is the best place to purchase them if this is indeed the case?
 
Elite6 said:
If the ticking is a lifter, is it likely I will need to replace all the lifters? Where is the best place to purchase them if this is indeed the case?
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My girlfriends 02 GTP started ticking shortly after I bought it.... but then the inside of the engine looked like it was full of dirt because of coolant and oil being mixed for so long. After the LIM gaskets were swapped I flushed it with oil and whatever "flush crap, lol" I could do. The ticking was a lifter not pumping up and now 15000 miles later the engine is still quiet. My engine is starting to look more reasonable inside now, and I pulled the fill spout off last oil change to see what I could. I am nearing a clean looking head casting underneath whereas it looked like mud before.

You could swap lifters especially if you have higher mileage while you are in there. Her car only had 70K on it at the time so I didn't bother.
 
I would do the LIM gaskets before anything. Leave the lifters alone as they are most likely fine. What I WOULD be worried about is the coolant getting into my oil and spinning a rod or main bearing. Would make the lifter tick kinda small potatoes, lol...

Just wash it all down w/ some oil while you are doing the LIM gaskets and give it the 2 oil changes as prescribed in doing this and I'd bet the lifter tick will diminish. My old motor had a bit over 200K on it and never had a lifter replaced.
 
FordMan77 said:
I would do the LIM gaskets before anything. Leave the lifters alone as they are most likely fine. What I WOULD be worried about is the coolant getting into my oil and spinning a rod or main bearing. Would make the lifter tick kinda small potatoes, lol...

Just wash it all down w/ some oil while you are doing the LIM gaskets and give it the 2 oil changes as prescribed in doing this and I'd bet the lifter tick will diminish. My old motor had a bit over 200K on it and never had a lifter replaced.
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The LIM replacement is happening ASAP, I just don't want to tear it down put all new stuff in and put it back to gether just to have it ticking again... but lifters are about $17.00 each around here. I would prefer not to spend extra but i'd be pissed at ticking.
 


I see your point at spending the extra $$, but you will be spending more than the $17/lifter if you replace them all. The stock rocker arm bolts are torque-to-yield, which means that if you remove all the rockers to get to the lifters then you are also buying a new set of bolts, and renting the degree torque wrench from a parts store as they require x amount of torque + x amount of degree to be tightened properly.

Then you also have valve cover gaskets and grommets for the bolts to replace.

If you want some different opinions try and get a video and post it here so we can listen to this "tick" and see how bad it really is.

I'm not saying to NOT replace the lifters, but seeing as how most of the 3800's I've heard have some form of lifter tick I'm not sure it's something that I would loose sleep over. Heck, running some Seafoam through the oil about 100 miles before a change may be enough to clean them up and make them quiet again.
 
I'm sorry to hear about the ticking issue with your vehicle. I see that you are going through with the LIM replacement. Please keep us posted as to if the repair fixed the issue or not. If not, or if you have further questions, please know that I would be happy to assist you in any way I can. Please send me a pm for further assistance. I wish you the best of luck with the repair.

Louis
GM Customer Service
 
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