LOUD ticking on start-up. Dang. Let's see what it is!

[silver03svt]

Well, for the last couple of seasons, the Cobra has had an intermittent LOUD ticking on startup, and it progressively got worse. It only lasted for a half second or so, but this year got to the point where it was too much. So, this past weekend, she started going under the knife.

Parked up on ramps in 04 MysticMan's garage:

And at the end of Saturday evening:

Got to work on it some Monday and Tuesday night also. I figured while I was into it this far, I may as well go ahead and pull the Eaton off of her, and give all the internals of it and the intercooler a thorough cleaning:

Tonight, with the help of 04 MysticMan and 2013 Laguna Seca, we got the timing cover off, and the cam covers off. Only one of them is off in this pic, but we did get the driver's side off before calling it a night:

AND found the culprit for the ticking. Timing chain tensioner had a gasket failure, causing the tensioner to leak down when the car was turned off:

Will be cleaning all the parts up and adding some new goodies when she gets reassembled.

 

[Sonic605hp]

Was going to say to check your tensioners....good work.

 

[rotor_powerd]

Meh. Looks like every other Cobra I've ever seen.





Always sucks when such a small failure causes a big teardown. At least it's an obvious fix. :beer:

 

[Torch10th]

So much work for such a little part!

 

[nofire]

Good find. I'd almost be angry it was something so small that caused that much work. lol

 

[Bearbo]

Meh. Looks like every other Cobra I've ever seen.





Always sucks when such a small failure causes a big teardown. At least it's an obvious fix. :beer:

This is very funny. Silver03, I have not seen many pics of your Cobra but this is one nice looking Silver Cobra. Looking forward to the updates.

 

[03cobra#694]

Meh. Looks like every other Cobra I've ever seen.





Always sucks when such a small failure causes a big teardown. At least it's an obvious fix. :beer:

Lol

So much work for such a little part!

Good find. I'd almost be angry it was something so small that caused that much work. lol

That's what I'm saying.

 

[CobraBob]

I think it's great that you found the problem, Doug, and that you found that the problem was a small one, literally. LOL. It's going to feel nice to start your Cobra up and for the first time in a long time not hear that annoying ticking noise. Nice that you had some helping hands with this, too. :rockon:

 

[Coiled03]

Good find. I'd almost be angry it was something so small that caused that much work. lol

Almost?

I'd be pissed!

 

[silver03svt]

I think it's great that you found the problem, Brad, and that you found that the problem was a small one, literally. LOL. It's going to feel nice to start your Cobra up and for the first time in a long time not hear that annoying ticking noise. Nice that you had some helping hands with this, too. :rockon:

Brad's car is broken, too???? lol

 

[Nightmare302]

Time to switch to the steel tensioners.

 

[BlksvtCobra01]

Happy you found it. A lot of work to get too that part.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Lightning&Mach1]

How did you have the plastic tensioners? Like stated its time to switch to steel tensioners.

 

[silver03svt]

How did you have the plastic tensioners? Like stated its time to switch to steel tensioners.

I think they are the steel tensioners. The only issue was the gasket blowing out.

 

[Lightning&Mach1]

By the looks of the photos they look like the plastic ones.

 

[DVJ38]

Glad it's a cheap fix at least!

 

[silver03svt]

By the looks of the photos they look like the plastic ones.

Could be. I really haven't examined them up close. Whatever they are, they are what came stock on the car.

 

[Nightmare302]

I think they are the steel tensioners. The only issue was the gasket blowing out.

The steel tensioners don't have a gasket. They switched to the plastic tensioners in later years. Steel tensioners plus spacer/grinding is the way to go.

 

[soccerman002]

I wouldn't be pissed to find out it was a small problem, I'd be happy as hell to:

#1 - find the problem
#2 - it be a simple fix

Would be a helluva lot worse to tear it all apart and not find a damn thing.

 

[FL Steve]

I currently have the same issue with the loud tick on start up. Thanks for sharing and pointing me in the right direction. I'll dig into it this winter.