[ThrouHerEyes]

Alright...yet another question about my "new" car..1973 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, 5.7cyl 350 rocket. There is a slight ticking in the engine while it runs....My father said it is a crack in the exaust manifold but I don't know if he is right. My mom thinks it's a "lifter" and is afraid of me driving it so if anyone can clear this up for me it would be greatly appreciated.

[Silver_Camaro]

Hmm.. Start the engine up and run your hand about and inch from the manifolds... See if you can find anywhere that you can feel the tinyist puffs of air coming out.. My camaro had a ticking that took me a few days to track down.. Ended up being at the bottom of the exaust manifold just before it clamps to exauhst pipe (dam speed bumps)... If you can't find it puffing air anywhere then take a valve cover off and start the engine and see if its a rocker clapping. If it is then simply tighten it till its not ticking then go another 1/4 turn. Be sure not to over tighten! And oh yeah.. may wanna do it in some old clothes cause u can expect oil to be spitting if the rocker is in fact clapping.

[crazy larry]

with the engine running, take an old rag, double it up real good, (if it has duals, get your mom or dad or a buddyto do one side) and cover up the exhaust. if its an exhaust leak, you'll really hear it.

[Silver_Camaro]

Never thaught of that... Good idea... hehe By the way would a small exauhst leak (pin hole size) cause u to lose any horse power?

[crazy larry]

i think hp loss would be negligible,the sound is just annoying ....
and a small leak often turns into a bigger one.....

[jackflash]

what I do to find any noise is cut a length of heater hose or garden hose a few feet long. long enough to reach from you r ear to whatever you want to hear. put on end on your ear and use your other hand to guide the end of the hose around all the exhaust joints, you will definately be able to tell iff you find a leak or not with that. another way is to take off the fan when its cold and start it up, you should be able to feel exhaust leaks in the manifolds like that also. and another idea, have a friend sit in the car and push the brakes and the gas (in gear) at the same time, not a burnout but enough to put a load on the engine, engine load seams to bring out manifold leaks more than just idle. good luck. you can use your hose to stick on the top of the valve cover to to listen for lifter ticks if you dont find it to be the exhaust. I've had this problem before so I know how ya feel.

[TooMany2count]

a friend of mine had the same kind of noise & he changed the motor(thinking its bad) only to find of it was his distributor that was making the noise. BUTTTTTTTTTTTT it could be any of the above reasons also & i would look at those first.........joe

[Forsaken502]

In my '84 Grand Prix with a 305 I had a tick in it as well. Since I was replacing the engine I just drove it with the tick for about 4 or 5 months. It never did anything bad (engine still ran good when I took it out). Turned out to be a lifter was messed.

[OldBucsFan]

One trick for finding a ticking lifter is to take a broomstick handle and place one end on the valve cover while holding the other end at your ear, then move the handle from one cylinder to another. If you have lifter noise, you will definitely hear it when you get to the right cylinder!

[johnsongrass1]

A few years ago I was driving thru the rain on my way home from work when suddenly I was forced to drive to one side of the right lane and splashed thru a water puddle that almost sent the car sliding into the curb. As soon as I regained controll, the car picked up a bab vibration and began to spit fire through the carb and pop and bang and make all kinds of noise. Since I run a MSD box on the car with a gutted dist. I assumed water had gotton into the dist. I drove it around the block and parked it and left it for a few day's to dry. I fired it up and the engine, popped, banged spit fire as well as this very wierd ticking noise that I was not acustomed to hearing. Worried at this point, l lifted the hood and went to unscrew the dist. cap and it just fell off! The water I had to drive through knocked the cap right off the dist base. She ran well agian after cleaning and reinspecting all the electronics.