08 Dakota 4.7L. I have a really bad tick on cold start in my engine, it settles down after a while, but it never goes away 100% (from what i can hear). Even after a 40 min drive to work, if I have everything in the cab off when I accelerate from stop I can still hear it ticking slightly.

From reading around online and this forum is seems there are a couple of common things it might be. I am thinking either a bad lifter (er lash adjuster I guess) or exhaust manifold bolts/gasket. All my friends and family say it sounds like the lifters. The ticking seems to be coming from the drivers side. I have kind of checked the exhaust manifold there and it seems solid.

Here's a couple vids of the sound
Cold start

After running idle for 35 min

Had it to the stealership once but of course they can't "duplicate" the sound. Recently my gas mileage dropped off and it seems to me like the power dropped ever so slightly. I used to get around 13L/100km but over this summer I averaged around 16. As for the power issue I used to set my cruise on the way to work, and only two hills would cause it to slow enough to downshift. Now almost all but the very slightest hills/ascents cause it to downshift (although less so if I've used it for a few days in a row). Could this be related to the ticking?

I pretty much know nothing about engines any insight would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

The warmed up (2nd) video sounds worse than what my truck sounds like when ice cold in subzero temps. Definitely something wrong there in my opinion. You can't always tell an exhaust leak by seeing if the manifold feels solid. It only takes a bolt and some corrosion still holding on to make a manifold "feel" solid.

How many miles/kilometers on the truck?

 

A little over 81,000 Kms. I do have a 98 Dakota with a cracked exhaust manifold and it doesn't sound anything like this (more swsh instead of tick). I would say if not for the exhaust leak it actually sounds better than the 08 and it has over 220,000 Kms on it!

 

first thing I would do is change the oil, you may very well have a pump issue, if the engine keeps ticking that bad after 35 min. then the lifters are not completely filling up with the oil they need, upon start up with these overhead cams, the lifters will slap against the pushrods until the oil reaches its point and fill up, either the oil is to thick, or the pump isn't doing the job, another thing could be the timing chain and tensioner, which means ripping into the motor

 

It is due for a change. I have been getting the oil changed every 5,000 km at the dealership (conventional oil). The last change I did myself around 76,000 km I used Pennzoil Platinum synthetic at the recommended 5w20. It has been ticking through the last couple of changes.

As I said in the OP the ticking really only seems to be coming from the drivers side (I can hear it from the passenger side but it is really toned down, I think I am still hearing it from the other side). Could a pump issue still cause this?

 

the pennzoil is complete garbage, it made my 3.7 have a ticking sound, put in royal purple and it went away fast! if you wanna pinpoint the sound, buy a stethoscope and put it on the head or by the exhaust manifold and you'll be able to hear it. Go back to synthetic and stay away from Pennzoil, Valvoline is also a very good choice.

 

Mine ticks sometimes some times it doesn't I found it to be normal for me. It doesn't get worse so I'm not worried about it. And I run Royal Purple.

 

Mine used to tick till I replaced the pennzoil the dealer kept putting in it with Amsoil.

 

My 3.7 used to tick. started a few months back. it was so gradual that i didn't notice it. after a while it developed an intermittent misfire. In reading the code it was a misfire on cylinder 5. we found a cracked plug, which explained the misfire, or so i thought. We also moved the coil from cyl 5 to cyl 3 at the same time. This was done to help trace it if it returned. The tick was gone for about a week, then the misfire came back about 2 weeks after that. When reading it, the misfire moved to cyl 3, so i replaced the coil. now the engine is quiet, and has more power then before replacing the coil.

The coils on the 3.7 runs 2 plugs, So I only have 3 coils in the whole truck. On a 4.7, each coil also handles 2 plugs, but there are 8, as there are 2 plugs per cylinder. Even though one part of the coil is failing, because there are 2 plugs, one fires before and one after TDC, the engine might not detect a misfire, even though you can hear it. In my case, the bottom of the coil failed causing the misfire only on one cylinder.

in my truck, I noticed that it didn't seem to have as much power since about mid summer. When i cleaned my K&N drop in about 2 months ago, it seemed to help, but it was not like it was before. The coil made all the difference in my case. Not that there is a lot of horsepower in the 3.7, but my K&N, my E3 plugs and the 3.92 gears make this truck perform pretty well. I used be able to do standing wheel spins including smoking one tire before (no LSD or locker in the rear) but i don't do it with my new tires, too much traction on the General Grabber AT2's. Now that there is snow and ice on the roads (I live in Northern Ontario, where it was -24 C yesterday) I'm able to spin 3 tires with ease in 4WD. I can't wait to be able to put in an LSD in the rear end.

 

I've run Pennzoil since Day 1 with no issues. I ran Pennzoil in my old 3.9 Dak for 210k miles with no issues. To each their own, I guess. Some people have claimed Mobile1 causes the tick too.

To me it sounds like a manifold leak. Its too raspy for a tick, but I could be wrong. Could be a stuck valve too. Have you pinpointed the exact location?