Who put a baseball card in my spokes?! Lifter tick or something worse?

[Airborne Janitor]

So my MJ has developed this really annoying "ticking". It does it on start up, but then goes away once the motor warms up. But it returns once revs get past 1800 RPMs. It doesn't matter what gear, what speed. It's gotten significantly louder and more annoying. I put a stethoscope on the motor to try to pinpoint the location but all I can tell you it's coming from the front of the motor. Is this something worse than a sticky lifter? Thanks in advance.

[MiNi Beast]

Sounds like a bad lifter. Possibly change fluid and add some lucus or else you gotta go back in it. 

[pizzaman09]

I get the sound of a ticking lifter like that upon startup if I've recently changed my oil.  Usually a couple good revs gets the lifter to re-pressurize and work perfectly for me.

 

I likely need fresh lifters.  The fact that yours starts to tick again over 1800rpm is odd to me.  

[cruiser54]

Try this. Start it. It is ticking. Shut it off for 10 seconds. Start it back up. Is the tick gone?

 

FWIW, Marvel Mystery Oil added to the oil in place of one quart of motor oil works well to clean lifters. 

 

What brand oil filter are you using? 

[Airborne Janitor]

4 hours ago, cruiser54 said:

Try this. Start it. It is ticking. Shut it off for 10 seconds. Start it back up. Is the tick gone?

 

FWIW, Marvel Mystery Oil added to the oil in place of one quart of motor oil works well to clean lifters. 

 

What brand oil filter are you using? 

 

Yes it still ticks. I'm using Rotella T5 10w30. I just changed the oil with a new K&N oil filter and some seafoam hoping it would help, it didn't.

[Salvagedcircuit]

I'm no master mechanic, but my comanche sounded like that when my top idler went toast. I inspected it on removal and the bearings felt like they were gritty. I replaced it and the sound vanished.

[cruiser54]

[Airborne Janitor]

19 minutes ago, cruiser54 said:

 

See my first post, I tried that and couldn't pinpoint the sound other than the front of the motor. 

[cruiser54]

Take the belt off and turn the pulleys. 

 

Inspect the harmonic balancer and see if it is separating. 

[pizzaman09]

Better yet, take the belt off and run the engine, if the noise is gone, it's an accessory.

[OldSch88L]

Am I the only one here that thinks that it sounds like an exhaust leak, or am I crazy? Sounds a lot like either a cracked exhaust manifold or leaking exhaust manifold gasket...

[cruiser54]

I didn't even listen to or watch the video. They're never worth a $#!& anyway. 

[Salvagedcircuit]

4 hours ago, OldSch88L said:

Am I the only one here that thinks that it sounds like an exhaust leak, or am I crazy? Sounds a lot like either a cracked exhaust manifold or leaking exhaust manifold gasket...

It could be as well. I had both a bad idler and a large exhaust leak and the two issues sound incredibly similar.

 

[AZJeff]

I agree.   Inside the limits of the types of audio that are posted on this forum, it sure sounds like an exhaust manifold leak.

[oleskool]

15 hours ago, cruiser54 said:

I didn't even listen to or watch the video. They're never worth a $#!& anyway. 

😂 sadly it’s true. To much filtering goes on. Most of the time the noise is amplified terribly. I hated when customers would send me videos like that for a quick diagnostic. 

[Airborne Janitor]

Well I was gonna do some work on my MJ this weekend, started her up and let the motor warm up to operating temp, then noticed white/bluish smoke coming out the tailpipe...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cruiser54]

Are you gonna pull the head?

 

It likely needs valve seals. 

[Airborne Janitor]

12 hours ago, cruiser54 said:

Are you gonna pull the head?

 

It likely needs valve seals. 

 

 

Looks like that will be my next step. :-(

[cruiser54]

You can do valve seals without moving the head. I've done it.