After i left Hooters tonight im on the way home and i get on it a little bit on the highway then i stop at a stop light and hear a ticking noise,VERY noticeable
so im like O-**** something is f-ed up so i continue to the next stop light and when i take off it is once again really loud. It sounds as if it is valvetrain related
I pull over and i notice i have plenty of oil so i then crank it back up and the tick is there still, SO i start freaking out and call a tow truck to tow my *** home.

Any ideas of what THE *** is wrong?
it sounds like it is coming from the driver side of the engine

 

is it possible you broke a valve spring? Not saying that's it but I get scared about doing that during these cold months.

 

dunno maybe. hope not!

guess i will pull the cover off tommorow

 

I wouldn't think that would be THAT bad. Yea i'd be a pain in the *** but it's better than something more serious.
Finding one 918 spring could be a PITA though.

 

I think if it were a valve spring you would notice a performance drop or at least a miss or something??? Ticking under excelleration could posibly be as simple as a growing exhaust leak?

 

you have the horrible mistery tap, that some of us have been complaining about lately..
(Not the infamous GM ticking noise)
this is a tapping coming from the drivers side of the Engine.
some of us have this, after installing a cam.
I have it, but havnt heard it in a while..
couple of things to check.
are your push rod length, they may be to short allowing the valve train to bounce.
also check your o ring on you oil pump pick up tube..
make sure it isnt cracked, and sealing up correctly. if it isnt sealed up right it will allow the oil pressure to drop which allows your lifters to bleed down. which "might be causing the tapping.( lifter bouncing off the cam)
I also noticed that the tapping would come in if I had not changed the oil in a while, not that it was time, but getting close, like the viscosity had broken down.. if I added a quart of oil it would go away. I know you said you checked your oil. I was just giving another example..

 

i had a rocker arm back off one time. but it ran like **** when it happen.

 

i had a taping noise on the driver side, it was sort of a cycle, it would come and go. lifters were my culprit, not what i wanted to see when i took off the heads. ouch.

 

I'm pretty sure you can buy the springs by the each from Comp....at least I have before. I'd check all of the things above....especially the exhaust leak. What do you have for headers or manifolds....and check where it goes to the Y-pipe. Believe it or not, I had a horrible sound coming from the passenger valve cover...or so it seemed. I ended up using a mechanics stethoscope reaching thru the glove box to determine that it was coming from the heater core enclosure. You could only hear it inside the truck, and not when standing outside of it with the hood up. I took off the heater hoses and reached inside the one heater core inlet with a pick and pulled out the deteriorationg O-ring. The noise was gone. I bled the heater core like 3 times before someone on here finally led me to the O-ring. It made a hell of a noise....unfuckingbelievable....and drove me nuts. May or may not be your issue, but just wanted to make you aware of it. Can you hear yours from outside the truck with the hood up?

 

Good call. I thought they only sold them complete.