I had an old thread on this I do believe but unsure. Things I have done:

Replaced oil regularly and even tried a 10/40 weight to no success.

Replace plugs and wires.

Flushed the Radiator.

I use 89 and even tried 92 Octane on gasoline.

If I go on the highway and do a lot of acceleration and braking (stressing the motor I think) After about 30 minutes to an hour there is a ticking. This ticking increases with acceleration and decreases as I let off the pedal. This doesn't really happen in normal driving but it will if there is heavy congested traffic causing a lot of stop and go. None of this while the engine is cold, well there is a slight ticking sound then but it goes away withing minutes. 99.9% of the time this is consistent and persistent when the car is at its normal temp range.

What I have been told and this is contradicting......

EGR Valve is bad. It is a rocker arm or lifter. It is the distributor and or the Distributor cap. It is the timing chain. Then I was told that if it was any of the above it would kick on a dummy light in the dash so none of this is it so they say. It could be the Catalytic Converter. I was then told this is normal even though it never happened till a month or two ago.

I hear from using the long screwdriver a ticking coming from the intake manifold. I don't hear ticking around the valve cover at all to indicate it is a rod or rocker arm etc....

There is a few miles more but it has 116000 on it. For all I know everything in the truck is factory nothing new. When it is ticking there is a rougher idle there is no loss in power though or higher gas consumption.

Any one have what the think is the issue? Or is it best to get this puppy rebuilt and have the tranny rebuilt too?

 

is it using any oil? i know using oil can cause odd problems, if it is try replacing the plenum gasket (its under the intake) you can check if it is bad (even if you dont feel like you are using oil) by opening the butterfly and looking down it, if there is oil this is most likely your problem.

 

I saw that as an option too but didn't know how to go about that. Is there any directions to see this without needing to replace anything just yet? Also would this plenum gasket cause the issues I am having?

 

to check the plenum gasket (without replacing it) just take the air hat off, open the butterfly, and shine a flashlight down the air intake, if there is oil in the bottom replace the plenum, burning oil can cause some pretty odd symptoms in my experience, iv never had a ticking from it, but it cannot hurt to check into it if its fine you did not lose anything but the 10 minutes it took to check

 

Check the plenum first as Sharps states.


Second it could be a valve seat issue but that would require removal of the heads/head that is bad.

 

Thanks everyone. I'll look into this....this weekend. If not that I'll mention this to my mechanic friend as we are stumped since we can't hear any noise from the valve cover area but can on the intake manifold. It was suggested it could be the exhaust manifold gasket and vibrates to the intake?

 

I would go to the plenum gasket and during replacement you do intake gaskets as well. But first check it like Sharps stated.

 

First, I am not a mechanic, but will chime in and say that I have an '03 Durango w/ 4.7 and had a similar ticking. would increase with acceleration and varied depending on engine temp, but was always there. not being a mechanic, the guys at Brakes Plus discovered that the bolts to the manifold had snapped so they replaced the gasket and bolts. that was 6 months, or 18000 miles ago for me and the problem is completely gone. Perhaps one of the others on this forum can be more detail specific, but that may be the issue. I verified with dealership that this is a very common issue. My '03 has 141K and this started around 125K.

 

How many times do I have to post this reply when faced with the "ticking" issue...??

As the proud owner of a 99 2WD 5.9l D over the past 4.5 years I have faced & mostly defeated just about every issue ever mentioned in this forum...

from replacing the window regulators to blend door issues on the A/C to squeaking sway bar bushings to blipping speed on the cruise control etc etc and of course last but not least "ticking"...

This is 9.9 chances out of 10 caused by one or both of your exhaust manifolds blowing...you will need to remove them reseat them. Almost certainly the studs will shear on removal so make sure you order some new ones in advance. if they shear then the dealer will attempt to weld a bolt on top and try again. if that doesn't work then the cylinder head has to come off. for me the dealer succeeded on both occasions by welding. Also for reinstallation I believe that after market gaskets are available otherwise its metal to metal.

if you are really unlucky then the exhaust manifold will have warped and the stud holes don't line up - i needed to replace one of mine and got it from a scap yard...

good luck...Chris

 

LOL

Great post!