Bad Lifter? Or something else?

[VA-Mach1]

The motor suddenly developed a fast tick/tap when the RPM is between 1800-2800. Only at cruzing to light exceleration. If I let off the throttle or push the throttle harder the noise goes away, and it only does it when the engine is warm.

Thoughts?

[Idaho_mach]

Any ticking noise I check the spark plugs first.
Mine made a ticking noise before it blew a plug out.
I thought it was either lifter or timing chains

[VA-Mach1]

Yes. Forgot to mention that I have already checked the plugs. Did that first. I had a plug plow out also and it sounded like a exhaust leak/tick right before it blew. This tick/tap has a little more metallic ting sound and is faster than what the spark plug noise was.

Hmmm? Now that I think about the speed of the noise maybe it is in the lower end of the motor. Doesn't the crank turn faster than the cams?

[monsterbrad]

crank noise is a clunk clunk not a tick tick.
mine has the tick and comes and goes.
the car only has 6000 original miles on it the head is painted blue so Ford has had it off.
Some guys say these cars are just noisy and others make a big deal about it and take the heads off.
either way it may not cure the tick sound as a read 1 guy took the heads off had them serviced ported polished new valves and they still ticked.
Mine does it i am driving it with some Brad Penn straight zinc race oil added to the normal 5w20 Brad Penn
I am going to drive the car more then 40 miles a year like the original owner did.
Kinda hoping it just goes away.
mine runs awesome and never misses a beat and I am not easy on it by amy means.

[VA-Mach1]

Anyone have any thoughts? Before I through a fortune at it and replace the motor and trans.

T.O.B. maybe? What noise does a tob make?

I'm going to get some help tomorrow and see if I can get it to make the noise and try and pin point it while in the garage.

I hope it is the TOB. I want to change to a automatic anyway.

[JeromeMach1]

A bad or noisy TOB sounds like the combination of a squeal and worn out bearings. The easiest way to diagnose it is to sit at idle in neutral with the clutch pedal out. If the noise is there, then push the clutch pedal to the floor. If the noise goes away then the TOB is making that noise.

Based on your original post though, it does not sounds like a TOB issue. It could be the valve guides. They are known to cause the tapping.ticking sound. Some say poor cooling of one of the heads is the cause of this. When I developed this sound I had the heads worked and replaced the stock guides with bronze ones. Issue never came back.

Jerome

[Idaho_mach]

Originally Posted by monsterbrad

crank noise is a clunk clunk not a tick tick.
mine has the tick and comes and goes.
the car only has 6000 original miles on it the head is painted blue so Ford has had it off.
Some guys say these cars are just noisy and others make a big deal about it and take the heads off.
either way it may not cure the tick sound as a read 1 guy took the heads off had them serviced ported polished new valves and they still ticked.
Mine does it i am driving it with some Brad Penn straight zinc race oil added to the normal 5w20 Brad Penn
I am going to drive the car more then 40 miles a year like the original owner did.
Kinda hoping it just goes away.
mine runs awesome and never misses a beat and I am not easy on it by amy means.

Blue Stripe on the head means nothing.

[Khyren]

Mine had 16077 miles on it when I picked it up. It has 34489 on it now. I ended up driving it home quite gingerly and it still developed a tick on the way home. The only thing that I have found that makes it go mostly away is Penzoil Platinum 5w30 and a wix XP filter (51372XP I believe) I went through the pain staking process of taking the drivers side valve cover off and noticed that the cams look like they had hot spots in the lobes. I have no idea really. When I put new plugs in it, it completely went away and all was well. For a couple of hours. From the top, the engine is dead silent except for the injectors. Underneath, the bottom portion of both heads, more so the driver's side head, tick pretty audibly. I've had to just learn to freaking deal with it and know that one day I'll rip it out and put a pile of money into it and have it fixed. Until then, I deal with it one day at a time.

[VA-Mach1]

Whatever the noise is, it's getting A Lot worse. On top of what it did before it now rattles when I let off the throttle to shift, when I let the clutch back out, at a lower RPM, and I can hear a slow knock at idle.

Engine and trans swap coming sooner than I am ready for.

[not a gt]

Originally Posted by VA-Mach1

Whatever the noise is, it's getting A Lot worse. On top of what it did before it now rattles when I let off the throttle to shift, when I let the clutch back out, at a lower RPM, and I can hear a slow knock at idle.

Engine and trans swap coming sooner than I am ready for.

Really sucks to hear this, almost sounds like a bearing, maybe a compression test will find something ???