Well, guys i was on the way home the other night from ridin around, when i heard a loud ticking on the driver side. Well i pull over and checked it out and it sounded like the exhaust flange, so i drove on home. Well the next day i checked it and the exhaust was good and i even took both valve covers off and checked the springs and rockers. Well that all looked good, so i test drove it and the ticking had stopped. Anyways, i was out last night and the same thing happened again. I ended up driving back home slowly and i noticed that the ticking would stop for a couple minutes, thin start again. Its got me confused, but everything looks good. Do you guys think it could be a lifter goin bad? Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

 

could be a lifter or possibly flexplate...or something else completely. what transmission do you have?

 

my first guess is a lifter. does it vary with rpm? is it a rythmic ticking or kinda like a rattle? loose flexplate bolts, or bad converter. most likely a lifter from what you described

 

My guess is lifter as well. I'm sure you did but did you check your oil level?

 

4l60e and i checked the oil and it looks to be good. I think its a lifter to and the ticking is very low sounding at idle and it gets louder with rpm. It sounds to me like its coming from the back driver side, corner of valve cover. Im about to start taking the cover off and check things out.

 

I have a good friend that had a Z71 with a 5.3 that was suppose to be rebuilt just a few thousand miles ago and it did the same thing. It was lifters, it would come and go, never really seemed to hurt the truck but it annoyed the hell out of him. He had the best luck by just changing the oil and using Lucas additive when it would start to do it more frequently. He got tired of it and sold the truck but it is still in town and still has the same problem. It must not be a huge problem cause its been running around for a couple years that way, and the new owner uses it to pull his car to the strip in an 30' enclosed trailer all the time...

I'd tell you how we deal with stuff like that out on the farm but you would freak out... (4 quarts of the cheapest motor oil you can find and 2 quarts of diesel, let it idle about 15 minutes, and change it)

 

Mine is doing it as well.

The funny thing with mine, is it does it every time you start the engine, and the oil pressure is somewhat low at 38psi, then the ticking will stop - at the same time, the oil pressure pops up to around 40psi.

From my reading on here, it could be the oil pump relief valve sticking.

My engine is sludged up from coolant entering through somewhere, and after a recent motor flush and fluid change with filter, the ticking has gone away....for now.
Seems to come and go with oil changes. It will get worse after about a week or two as the water slowly works its way back into the oil.

Possibly do a Gunk Engine oil flush before you change it, let it idle for 5 minutes, then shut it down and see how many boogers you pull out. Do it before you pull the old oil out.

I did the Gunk treatment just on Friday night, and pulled out Boogers, nasty clumps, sludge and everything.
It was fairly cheap as well.
Refill with your normal engine oil and filter, and see how it works out.

 

hey guys i just got done lookin my driver side over. All the rockers were good and tight and they seemed ok. The push rods all were good as well. So im thinkin its a lifter. So i might try and change oil and run that Engine Gunk through it also.

 

I have the same issue, lifters. Tried all kinds of different pushrods because I thought my preload measurements were wrong, but it usually stayed about the same. I've just gotten used to it...