Odd Noise

[Milos]

Last week I went to New York, 260 miles and back. When I got back I noticed that the engine (or something close to it) started making this odd noise. Now I'm going to throw out several examples to help this out here... it sounds like a continuous clicking that matches the revs of the engine, ie. When its idle, its click-click-click-click, when I rev it, the clicks get quicker. It reminds me of an older car that used to make a "steam-engine" noise whenever you gave it gas.

I first thought that it was the exhaust pipe, since a hanger came loose and the driver's side pipe is buckling really badly. But when I looked underneath it, it sounds like its coming more from the header part of the car.

Anyone want to ballpark it?

[MattJ]

Sounds like your valves are ticking..

[GREG@SN95]

Originally Posted by MattJ

Sounds like your valves are ticking..

valves...:stupid:

Its hard to say w/ out hearing it myself...

Could it be an exhaust leak? bad header gasket... loose bolt?

[PureStang]

in ur case..i would hope that it would be a bad header gasket...i have a clicking sound like u stated and its cause i forgot to replace the studs going from the header to the midpipe...

also..can u smell unburnt gas when ur stoped w/ the windows down? thats a sign of a bad gasket

[Milos]

I don't smell any gas, a buddy of mine mentioned it's a valve but I wanted to run it by you guys first.

Let me put it this way, whats the repair time and cost on both of those situations.

[MattJ]

If I were you, id run a top engine cleaner through your car like seafoam or something. You may have exessive carbon buildup that may be the source of the problem if you are lucky. I personally would add a can of seafoam to my gas, one through a vacuum line, and one directly into the oil and go out and beat on your car for 30 minutes, but listening for any sounds getting better or worse.

If you have ticking valves, you can be for in an expensive repair depending on exactly whats wrong. You can expect to pay easily 400+ bucks in labor costs.

[Milos]

Originally Posted by MattJ

If I were you, id run a top engine cleaner through your car like seafoam or something. You may have exessive carbon buildup that may be the source of the problem if you are lucky. I personally would add a can of seafoam to my gas, one through a vacuum line, and one directly into the oil and go out and beat on your car for 30 minutes, but listening for any sounds getting better or worse.

If you have ticking valves, you can be for in an expensive repair depending on exactly whats wrong. You can expect to pay easily 400+ bucks in labor costs.

Wow, was that the pessimistic view or does it get worse?

[PColav6]

Hey I have a quick ques for you milos, does it make that noise through all your gears or just your first? I was noticing a slight click noise today but once I got to 2nd gear it went away. But I have test driven an 02 mustang that had a horrible click noise and the thing had absolutely no torque pull

[MattJ]

Originally Posted by Milos

Wow, was that the pessimistic view or does it get worse?

400 is on the light side. Taking your heads off isnt a simple task. Like I said, run seafoam through your car and go out and beat on it for 30 minutes. If you still have the same problem, you may be in for a costly repair. Hell, mabye its NOT valve ticking, mabye its something else. Kind of hard to diagnose a noise when I cant hear it myself.

[Teal_Beast]

if it is your heads . . it soundslike a perfect time to make more horsepower!!!

contact rpm-mustangs.com or supersixmotorsports.com and look at a set of ported heads!

Then you can do the swap yourself, its just as simple as pulling a few bolts from your intake and taking off your valve covers etc

[Milos]

Yeah, its really bad in first through second, and starts to soften in third and fourth, I figured because you're not using that many RPMs when you're in third and fourth.

I'm going to head to the autoparts store and grab some Matt, I'll let you know.

[Milos]

Originally Posted by MattJ

If I were you, id run a top engine cleaner through your car like seafoam or something. You may have exessive carbon buildup that may be the source of the problem if you are lucky. I personally would add a can of seafoam to my gas, one through a vacuum line, and one directly into the oil and go out and beat on your car for 30 minutes, but listening for any sounds getting better or worse.

If you have ticking valves, you can be for in an expensive repair depending on exactly whats wrong. You can expect to pay easily 400+ bucks in labor costs.

Where exactly are the vacuum lines... diagrams would be nice =P

[Milos]

Alright after all day working on the car, with going to and fro the auto-store and other misc. things, these are the updated results.

After using two and a half applications of sea foam (one for gas, one for oil, and one for the vacuum.)

The ticking noise didn't go away, actaully it got more solid and noticable. After reving it and listening to it I've ballparked the location of the noise to be somewhere below here... (See attached)



Also, now when the engine is idling, it runs much rougher, continously bucks and sometimes is on the verge of stalling at 500RPMs, it never does but it deffintely hesitates. It drives however, very smoothly, acceleration is great (I also treated the transmission system a few days ago), shift points are smooth as hell, but that ticking has gotten worse. maybe you guys know the "baseball-cards-on-bike-spokes" thing, yeah thats exactly what it sounds like.

Additionally my radiator fan isn't working and I'm leaking coolant... so I don't know if this is more harm than good or what here, but she's deffinetly strugling at a stop (in gear or in park). Maybe its just the sea foam, maybe not, I'm not sure, hit me back on this guys.

oh and just for kicks and giggles

[95STANG]

maybe it is your radiator fan?? I had to have mine replaced couple weeks ago. It sound exactly like the baseball card in the bike spoke sound, but it still ran. You said yours was shot?

[GREG@SN95]

hm...

Check your water pump and harmonic balence...

Believe it or not... before My car got wrecked the harmonic balence was scraping the water pump pulley... you may have a problem w/ the water pump if its leaking coolant...

But you said the ticking was coming from near the cyl head, if you're posotive thats where its coming from then this is not yer problem...


HERES AND OLD TRICK READ THIS IT COMES IN HANDY!

Go get a broom stick... put one end up to your ear and cover your other ear, and put the other end of the stick on different spots of the engine... the sound travels up the stick and allows you to accurately pin point the location of the sound!

good luck

[Milos]

No my fan is just shot to hell, it always was shot to hell, even when I bought it, it wasn't until recently that it started giving me overheating issues...

I'm thinking its the exhaust man-- because my driver's side pipe is ****ed up all to hell.. I'll have the mechanic lift it and figure it out.

Thanks guys.

[GREG@SN95]

Originally Posted by Milos

No my fan is just shot to hell, it always was shot to hell, even when I bought it, it wasn't until recently that it started giving me overheating issues...

I'm thinking its the exhaust man-- because my driver's side pipe is ****ed up all to hell.. I'll have the mechanic lift it and figure it out.

Thanks guys.

try to broom stick method i told ya about... put it on the manifold/header and on the valve cover... then let us know where the noise is coming from...

[Milos]

I thought you were just being a jackass... but its deffinetly coming from the manifold there, the exhaust manifold, the vibration and tone is just off the wall when I put it up against the headers.. not so much the air intake manifold and surrounding parts, but the exhaust manifold big time.

[Milos]

Here's a rear view of that exhaust pipe, we call it... "The Devil's Pipe"



Notice the difference between driver's side and passenger.

[GREG@SN95]

Originally Posted by Milos

I thought you were just being a jackass... but its deffinetly coming from the manifold there, the exhaust manifold, the vibration and tone is just off the wall when I put it up against the headers.. not so much the air intake manifold and surrounding parts, but the exhaust manifold big time.

lol... no... I wouldn't screw with you when you are having car problems...

Yah... Its a minor thing...

You have an exhaust leak... this causes the O2 sensor to make false reading (tells your engine its running lean) and your engine throws codes (ends up running too rich and bogs)...

So... what you need to do is pull that particular header...

replace the gasket... buy a new header (if need be)
and when putting it back on make sure that there are no leaks before ya drive. drivin with a leak w/ blow another gasket...

And be sure to tighten the header bolts every few days... until you are satisfied that they are good...

or pay a pro...

your call... but nothing to worry about

[Milos]

Could this be an excuse to get new headers to begin with?

[GREG@SN95]

Originally Posted by Milos

Could this be an excuse to get new headers to begin with?

yeh... why not