Getting ready to pull drivers side valve cover....What to look for?? (Tick related)

[Gixxerride04]

Long story short....I've been chasing an engine tick for awhile now, and when I put my stethoscope on the drivers side cylinder head and exhaust I can hear the tick pretty good. I was gonna pull the valve cover this weekend and see what I can find.

My question is when I pull the valve cover what exactly should I be looking for? Will I be able to see if the chain is loose? Would I be able to feel a loose lifter? Could I check the valve guides?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[stangaddict09]

pulled mine and it was a waste of time... my friend is a mechanic at ford and we checked everything and it was all good. I believe its in the tensioners or something below the head. just my 2 cents. lot of work for nothing.

 

[Gixxerride04]

I hear ya. I was wondering if maybe I could see if the timing chain was loose? Maybe try to push on it with something to see if there is any slack.

 

[leegro1015]

Did you rule out exhaust manifold leak?

 

[oldmodman]

Don't waste you time until you have done a leak down check. It will let you listen for the hiss that comes from anything wrong.
Hiss at the exhaust pipe? Bad exhaust valve.
Hiss at the breather in the valve cover? Bad valve guide. Or even worse a bad piston ring seal. But the leak down numbers would show a leak that large.
Hiss at the radiator cap? Blown head gasket.

The only thing you need to pull the valve cover for is if you get no cranking pressure on one cylinder. Sometimes the cam follower will get spit out and then the valve doesn't even open. Pretty easy to notice. You will have a dead cylinder, but the leak down will be great.

 

[Gixxerride04]

Did you rule out exhaust manifold leak?

I looked over the manifold pretty good with a mirror on the parts I couldn't see, and it looks good from what I could tell.

Don't waste you time until you have done a leak down check. It will let you listen for the hiss that comes from anything wrong.
Hiss at the exhaust pipe? Bad exhaust valve.
Hiss at the breather in the valve cover? Bad valve guide. Or even worse a bad piston ring seal. But the leak down numbers would show a leak that large.
Hiss at the radiator cap? Blown head gasket.

The only thing you need to pull the valve cover for is if you get no cranking pressure on one cylinder. Sometimes the cam follower will get spit out and then the valve doesn't even open. Pretty easy to notice. You will have a dead cylinder, but the leak down will be great.

sounds good. I will do a compression test and leakage test next and see what I get.

 

[SlowSVT]

A leakdown test is what you want to do, not a compression test which are almost useless (I once measured a "normal" compression reading on a 2 stroke road bike but when I pulled the jugs one of the pistons skirts on the exhaust side was almost completely gone). Even a bad head can generate a flash reading the compression gauge will read as OK. The leakdown test measures the "rate" of compression loss which is a lot more accurate and meaningful.

I don't think you will visually see any evidence of the excessive guide wear (head tick) after removing the valve covers. Finding the tick in the head if it's the valves depends on how bad it is. If it's bad you may be able to wiggle the top of the valve stem. If it moves back and forth you found the culprit but if it's not excessive you may not feel any movement with the valve springs in place. Look at the rear exhaust guides first.

Like others have stated don't assume you have the tick. There's a lot of stuff in there that can make unwanted noise.

 

[Midnight_Cobra]

http://www.svtperformance.com/forum...cover-rocker-off-and-laying-there!&highlight=