mhartley

I wanted to see if anyone could offer suggestions. I have a 1956 324 (in a '55 88), and the engine starts great, has plenty of power and does not smoke. However, after the engine warms up (about 5 minutes), the engine starts ticking. The engine sounds perfect when it first starts, but after about 5 minutes the ticking starts as a few intermittent ticks and gradually gets louder and more regular. I first thought it had multiple exhaust leaks that did not appear until the engine warmed up and the metal expanded, but I replaced the exhaust manifold gaskets and it made no difference at all. The exhaust manifolds were pretty rough and probably should have been machined, but I used the copper RTV along with the proper gaskets. I also changed the oil and ran some Sea Foam in the oil for for a while before I changed the oil which made no difference either. I should also add that the stock oil pressure guage looks completely normal so I don't appear to have an oil pump issue. Any thoughts on what this might be or what I should try next? Thanks in advance for your help!

svnt442

Could be either a bad lifter or a rocker arm that needs attention. There is no way to know unless you dig into it.

oldcutlass

Bad lifter???

svnt442

Bad lifter. I thought that was straight forward. If it has warn out to the point where it wont hold up with the thinner oil after it has warmed up it will cause a tapping due to the increased gap at the rocker arm and valve tip.

mhartley

Thanks for the input. I have never worked on lifters/pushrods/rocker arms, but I like figuring things out and fixing them myself. I doubt I will be very good at diagnosing whether the lifters and rods are worn, so should I just replace the lifters and rods and see if it fixes the problem? I can get lifters, rods and VC gaskets for about $250 from Kanter. Are there other parts I should replace at the same time that don't require removal of the heads? I don't want to waste money, but I can't imagine getting in and out of the mechanic's garage for under $250.

Cratethis

I'm looking at doing the same thing to my 324 (from '55). I've got some other things that I need to do first so it will be a couple months before I get to this. Keep me up to date on how this goes for you and your results.

mhartley

I decided to bite the bullet and have a mechanic look at it. I will let you know what he says.....

mhartley

I had a new cam and lifters put in and it fixed the ticking. The lifters were shot and several just fell apart when pulled. The cam had two severely worn lobes. While it was apart, I also had them put in new timing gears and chain as well as push rods since they are relatively inexpensive and had to come off anyway. Back to Basics Automotice in Phoenix performed the work and did a great job for a reasonable price. Car runs great and no annoying ticking!

oldcutlass

Good to hear!!!

442much

I had a tick (before doing my current rebuild) and someone told me it could also be a worn out fuel pump. Until this rebuild the fuel pump was original. It has been changed. Thought it was exhaust, then lifter. Decided to do it all.

Redog

I was thinking exhaust leak but I'm pretty sure that sound goes away when the car is warmed up