What is this noise??

Zuc

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Hey all, hoping someone on here can shed some light into this issue im having. Ive posted before about this same issue and thought I had it figured out but I was wrong, this noise is driving me crazy, im scared to drive my car at all. I stethescoped everywhere and everything sounds almost identical. The only real significant change in tone from cold to hot is the injectors. the upper cam cover bolt by CYL#5 is probably the loudest one of them all, but it stays pretty consistent through the temperature range. and the noise seems louder on the passenger side. Sorry forgot to mention this noise is only present after car is completely warmed up and to operating temp. This is an 03 cobra with 3,500 miles on it. head cooling mod installed immediately after I purchased the car with 3,200 miles on it. sorry i've been trying to upload the video for half an hour now, cant figure it out... How do I do this, every time I try the Upload a file it doesn't seem to work. I'm sure this is operator error so any help with this too would be awesome!!
 

03cobra_keek

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Mine made a similar noise after sitting the winter. It was the throw out bearing squeaking. Sounds similar but hard to tell on the video
 

Zuc

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Mine made a similar noise after sitting the winter. It was the throw out bearing squeaking. Sounds similar but hard to tell on the video

Would yours make the same noise regardless of clutch engaged or disengaged? Because to me it seems like that's the area where its coming from. But the noise on mine does not change when I disengage the clutch. Thanks!
 

03cobra_keek

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Would yours make the same noise regardless of clutch engaged or disengaged? Because to me it seems like that's the area where its coming from. But the noise on mine does not change when I disengage the clutch. Thanks!

Sometimes yes sometimes no. Its low miles so it was never driven. Lots of time to build up surface rust on bare metal parts even in a heated garage. Moisture is always there. Hopefully that's the issue
 

Zuc

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Sometimes yes sometimes no. Its low miles so it was never driven. Lots of time to build up surface rust on bare metal parts even in a heated garage. Moisture is always there. Hopefully that's the issue


Ok ya this car was originally bought in New Jersey and it does have some minor areas of surface rust. I guess I will get it warmed up, jack it up and remove dust cover to see if noise gets louder or more prominent with cover off? Im guess im preparing myself for the worst here with concerns of the Termi Tick. I had plans of a 2.8L Kenne bell when I bought the car but im not going to throw money into go fast parts until I get this figured out. If anyone else has ideas on areas I can/should check please let me know. Thanks!
 

03cobra_keek

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It doesnt sound like a head tick! You'll hear it clear as day if it was. The noise is coming from underneath. Which lead me to believe the tob. I highly doubt it's a rod bearing. Keep us posted on your findings
 

Zuc

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It doesnt sound like a head tick! You'll hear it clear as day if it was. The noise is coming from underneath. Which lead me to believe the tob. I highly doubt it's a rod bearing. Keep us posted on your findings

absolutely I will, its gonna take me some time to diagnose I work out of town all week and try to reserve most of my weekend time with the family, but can usually squeeze a couple hours a weekend into playing with my toys. and yeah I think I have ruled out bottom end issue via the stethoscope. With the noise present and scoping the oil pan/block I cant hear anything out of the ordinary.
 

hotcobra03

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Hard to say with being in garage. Noises change.

Could be a pulley bearing even.

Tob is common but normally will change sound when pedal is pushed.

For me. I remember those sounds when my 1st head went.

Noisest was while in a drive thru lane
Tick tick tick

A basic compression test is suggested

These run still very well on 7 cylinders

Just 1 exhaust valve stuck will start that tapping noise

These issues do not set a miss-fire code.

Odd things. Oil filter. Some have been known to tick
 

Zuc

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Hard to say with being in garage. Noises change.

Could be a pulley bearing even.

Tob is common but normally will change sound when pedal is pushed.

For me. I remember those sounds when my 1st head went.

Noisest was while in a drive thru lane
Tick tick tick

A basic compression test is suggested

These run still very well on 7 cylinders

Just 1 exhaust valve stuck will start that tapping noise

These issues do not set a miss-fire code.

Odd things. Oil filter. Some have been known to tick


Yep, its noticeable for sure when in a drive thru or next to a wall or yes in my garage (great just what I wanted to explain to my wife! now I get to spend another 2500 getting heads redone after dropping 30K on the car). If I don't respond with a finding my wife probably ended me! ive scoped the oil filter too and it is quiet as can be, I did a compression check about 2 months ago and got 150 on cylinders 1-5 and 140 and cylinders 6-8 starting on cyl #1. the engine was cold, all plugs were in other than one being tested, and my battery started getting weak. I had the car on the dyno maybe 4 months back now on a mustang dyno at 6000 ft it made 372 hp and 442 tq to wheels. car has a 3" upper 9" lower, accufab oval TB, bassani OR x-pipe and magnaflow cat backs. everything to car was already done other than the x pipe.

So back to the tick issue, ive seen the TSB on this before but am confused on one area. If I cancel the cylnders via the injectors and still hear the noise does this mean it is the tick or not the tick?
 

hotcobra03

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My numbers have always been high.
May be my guage.

180-195

I did a cold test 1 plug just to see.

#5. 180.

Sadly I had head rebuilt. For cylinder 6 valve. Few yrs later cylinder 7 cracked in plug threads causing water leak. This read 140 on my guage

Luckily I was one who got the new head when they were cheap. 1100 from ford complete

Doing the work myself it costed 2grand with supplies to do job


Only good I can say.

Passenger is still original 4 thread 420k

Drivers head has 200k plus and holding up fine without hcm
 

Zuc

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My numbers have always been high.
May be my guage.

180-195

I did a cold test 1 plug just to see.

#5. 180.

Sadly I had head rebuilt. For cylinder 6 valve. Few yrs later cylinder 7 cracked in plug threads causing water leak. This read 140 on my guage

Luckily I was one who got the new head when they were cheap. 1100 from ford complete

Doing the work myself it costed 2grand with supplies to do job


Only good I can say.

Passenger is still original 4 thread 420k

Drivers head has 200k plus and holding up fine without hcm


Damn, not really what I was wanting to hear, I guess its time to tear into this frickn thing and see what the hell is going on.
 

Zuc

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I guess I should've said/asked this at the beginning but this noise I got completely disappears, at least to my hearing, right around 1000 rpms. then it purs like a kitten. Can you still hear the head tick with throttle applied? sort of like a out of spec lash on lifter with a solid roller cam? IDK im sure it sounds like im reaching hear to avoid it being the head tick, I just want to make damn sure that's what it is before I pull heads and send off for rebuild.
 

hotcobra03

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Scary part. You aren’t the first to purchase a cobra to find it has issues

Good luck on this.

Tell the wife it’s a needed upgrade that all of the cobras must have.
 

wckdvnm

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I have a lash adjuster that likes to tap during summer months on my car. Sometimes it would tap for minutes then go away. Only ever presented itself when warm.
My car however had 115-120k on it when it popped up and it was after switching oil brands.
It has seemed to disappear again but the car isn’t being driven at all right now. I could hear the noise with a stethoscope on the valve cover bolt on pass. side of the engine. Though it wasn’t always as audible to the ear it was constant on the valve covers bolts.


Sent from my iPhone using svtperformance.com
 

Saleen9675

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I would also check your cats. I have a termi swap with a magnaflow h pipe and with less than 3k miles the cats started to disintegrate. Part of the material that's inside the cat was bouncing around in the exhaust and it sounded like a tick in the motor. I took the H-pipe off and particles fell out. I installed it back on and the tick was gone. Good luck, hopefully its an easy fix.
 

Zuc

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I have a lash adjuster that likes to tap during summer months on my car. Sometimes it would tap for minutes then go away. Only ever presented itself when warm.
My car however had 115-120k on it when it popped up and it was after switching oil brands.
It has seemed to disappear again but the car isn’t being driven at all right now. I could hear the noise with a stethoscope on the valve cover bolt on pass. side of the engine. Though it wasn’t always as audible to the ear it was constant on the valve covers bolts.


Sent from my iPhone using svtperformance.com
That was my first thought was the adjusters, ive stethescoped everywhere on this car, and upper cam cover bolt on #5 is the loudest. The weird thing is its just as loud cold as it is hot, so im guessing that's not it because you can only hear the noise when car is up to operating temp. The injectors are the only thing ive noticed that seem to get louder with temperature rise.

I would also check your cats. I have a termi swap with a magnaflow h pipe and with less than 3k miles the cats started to disintegrate. Part of the material that's inside the cat was bouncing around in the exhaust and it sounded like a tick in the motor. I took the H-pipe off and particles fell out. I installed it back on and the tick was gone. Good luck, hopefully its an easy fix.

I have a bassani off road X pipe (no cats) and have had the cat back portion off recently to sand and polish. reinstalled everything and its still there.

Exhaust leak at the headers will sound like a valve tick too

Yes this is my next area to check I think before taking heads off the car. It might be hard to tell in the video but the noise seems like its coming from passenger side. But then again with the hood up and trying to pin point an area of the noise it seems like its coming from everywhere. Just when im certain it sounds like its coming from pass side I put my head a little closer and it sounds like its coming from driver side! so I go to driver side put my head close and it sounds like its coming from passenger side!!! it drives me nuts. I might say the hell with it drive it like I stole it, wait for the goddamn thing to blow and rebuild it all!
 

Zuc

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another thing I shouldn't have done or not was, when I first bought the car here in Colorado there was snow on the roads, so I didn't get to test drive it and get it warmed up, all I did was pull it into my trailer and bring it home. It wasn't until after I changed the oil and filter (both motorcraft) and spark plugs (motorcraft oem's) was I able to drive it and noticed noise after my first drive. I did a pull in 4th gear from from about 60-120. other than that drove it normal, pulled it back into garage and noticed it. And here we are now 300 miles later, 2 oil changes with filter changes, and 2 more spark plug changes. went from motorcraft oem filter to a wix the other two times, (motorcraft) 5w-20 to (Valvoline) 10w-30 trying to get the tick to disappear then finally to royal purple 5w-20. still don't know what it is... I am currently running NGK TR6's at .035" gap.
 

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