Hey there, still trying to figure out this engine ticking I have been having troubles with. Looking for some more experienced opinions on what it could be. I will paste a URL down below with a short video of the sound coming from my engine.

Around a year ago I replaced a generic autozone tct with @Billman250’s tct. I assume it is working as expected, unfortunately it made almost no change to the sound I was hearing. I had already done a valve adjustment prior to that, and I was pretty confident with my valve work…but I may have to look into it again if I can’t fix the ticking.
I am also aware that the stock injectors can be noisy, but I have a feeling it’s not what I hear. I ran fuel injector cleaner to see if that would help, but nothing changed there.

I can hear the sound from the drivers seat while it’s on idle. I also notice it echoing off of other cars and buildings when driving by.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

URL:
https://youtube.com/shorts/3ctojCtDoU4?si=oUU-VgtNwxs4XpIv

 

Is the noise louder near the pulleys?

 

There is no tct noise there, the hood has to be closed for the video to be sure.

 

It's a bit hard to pinpoint. It sounds the loudest over the fuel rail, which could just be injectors... But I also hear a slightly different a noise around the idle gear bolt at the front of the engine.
I will get another video with the hood closed like Billman said, tomorrow morning.

 

Also rule out a serp belt pulley. Just slide belt off waterpump pulley, start engine, see if noise gone.

Hand spin idler pulley and tensioner pulley for good measure. Should be smooth, noise free. Easy & cheap to replace bearings, vs entire pulley.

 

Checking the belt pulley bearings takes 10 minutes. Depending on your budget and tools you can just fit a new pulley or press in a new bearing. You'll find notes here.

Let us know what you find.

-- Chuck

 

Did you use bent feeler gauges when doing a valve adjustment? If you don't get the feeler gauge properly in there, it can "bind up" and make you think it's snug, when in reality it is on the loose side.

Hard to tell from a video, but the ticking sounds similar to mine when all of my valves were on the loose side.

 

I appreciate the feedback, I haven't had a good chance to look into the pulleys. I will look into it this weekend once I have some more time.

I was able to get a video of the ticking sound with the hood closed. The sound is very apparent near the wheel well and grille, but I assume that is because there is less material for the sound to pass through.
Below is a link to the video, hopefully it helps with pinpointing the sound.


@MDyckman I did use bent feeler gauges, and I went for a size in between the recommended clearance measurements. Perhaps a nut on one of the rockers came loose? Or perhaps I did a poor job on my original adjustment.
After checking the pulleys I will likely do another adjustment to see if anything is off, or hopefully fix the issue. I would hate to damage this engine any further...

 

FYI, you can use my 180 away method for VA.

The part of this job that is easy to mess up is aligning timing marks, tdc, counting degrees of rotation, etc. Can get confusing.

You can throw that part of the instructions away.

Instead, just turn crank (clockwise only!) Until valve you want to next adjust has its cam lobe pointed up, 180 degrees away from follower.

There is no precision required here. Few degrees too far, or not enough, not relevant. Cam lobe up is all the precision required. That is bc the valve closed profile is consistent across practically half the cam rotation. Closed is closed. Anywhere near the center point of the closed half of the profile is the same.

Even if you don't want to deviate from official process, you should still use 180 away as your sanity check to make sure you didn't screw up. If it ain't pointed up, you messed up. Don't adjust that valve yet. Do over the rotation steps, confirm cam up, then adjust.

Using this method allows you to breath easier if you could have messed anything up. Especially if results are questionable after its running again. Is it possible I screwed that part up? Nah, I know I saw lobe up before adjusting each one. No question about that part of task.

 

Try to take off serpentine belt, maybe is some tensioner pulley