Hello, I have been reading lots of advice on your great forum due to a problem I have had for a few months now. I recently purchased an 05 dodge durango limited with the 5.7 hemi. I wanted to do a tuneup on it and fix anything that may be wrong since its our only vehicle.

So I read about the exaust bolts breaking and noticed that on mine on the passanger side. I replaced the exaust gasket on the pass side and the next week changed all 16 spark plugs.
Since then I have noticed a ticking noise which seems to come from the drivers side, you can hear it very well in the drivers seat with no interior noise. The ticking never goes away, increases with rpm and gets a little louder when the engine is warm.
At first I though it was a spark issue since it seemed to start after I changed the plugs. So I came here and read all the issues it could be, I got a mechanics stethascope and listened around and the noise seemed to be loudest on the fuel rails, so I unplugged each injector with no change. Next I read about a stripped spark plug which can cause gasses to excape back out the plug hole, so I replaced all 8 plugs on the drivers side and still have the ticking noise. I thought it was the infamous hemi tick but after listining on utube what they are calling that my noise sounds much differant. Thinking it was lifter noise I changed the oil and added a fuel additive and have only been running mid grade fuel. Yesterday I was driving the fam around and noticed when I got home the ticking was more pronounced. My first though was exaust leak on the drivers exaust manifiold which I havent tackled yet. So the next morning I read here and learned to clog the tail pipe with a rag and I assumed the leak would get louder but it didnt. Im not sure what to do at this point, I really dont want to take it to the stealership and have them check it to tell me theres nothing wrong.
So I plan to change the exaust bolts and gasket on the drivers side in a few days I just want to make sure from you guys that im going the right direction. Sorry for the long post, it seems like Ive checked all that I can think of or have read about.

after reading that wanted to add that what Ive read with exaust leaks is that once the engine is warm they close up but does not seem to be the case here.

Probably a bad valve. Catch it (repair) before it drops or worse. Somewhat typical on the early (04/05) 5.7s.

thats not good, is there a way to check for that without removing the head or valve cover?

The valve covers are pretty easy to remove because all the gaskets are captured rubber ones, all you need to do it remove the plug wires and ignition coils (10mm socket) the remove the 10 valve cover screws (8mm socket). If you see something obviously wrong id get it fix, otherwise id take lots of pictures and post them to see if some else see's some thing.....4 eyes are better than 2.

Pending the tools you have, you could probably check for a bad valve or bad valve guide or seals by doing a compression test and a leakdown test. You could probably get a good mechanic to run these tests as well. I'm not an expert on this, but I think those tests could help point out if you are having any issues with the valves.

How loud is the tick? Is the car running ok? Are you burning any oil? I've read that if a valve guide or seal is worn out that you might burn oil by oil leaking through to the cylinder because of the bad seal. I'm sure there are others on here with much more knowledge on this than me.

I am curious though.....you said the tick sounded loudest on the fuel rails. The fuel injectors do make a ticking sound while they run that does sound very similar to a lifter tick. It would also make sense that as you rev the engine up that the ticking increases as the injectors would be running faster. Try putting your mech. stethescope directly only the fuel injectors themselves and see if that is the sound you are hearing. I'm wondering if that's your issue and there is no problem......just the normal ticking sound of the fuel injectors. They can be quite loud. Definitely try the stethescope directly on the injector and see if that is the sound you are hearing.

So I replaced the exaust gasket on the drivers side with no change in the ticking sound, so I brought it to a mechanic who listened to the noise. He said its the efi working and everything is normal. It seems very loud to me in the drivers seat with the radio and ac off, just an annoying ticking. So apparantly its normal so I will stop putting money into it. Yes it does run fine, I just figured it is not normal because ive never heard such a loud tick from the efi.

It shouldn't take a trained ear to tell the difference between normal and a problem.

Good luck with it from here.

Related - but unrelated - is my wife's Audi has the loudest ticking from the fuel injection system that I have ever heard.

Just like Indy Durango posted above, you should be able to discern what is what regarding the ticking sound from this point since you have been all over your engine.

i myself have the 04 5.7 hemi and have tickin on the passenger side, its loud and was told it could be 1 of 4 things,
1:valve tap, which is the most probable, and you would need to get the valve adjusted, its the most common in dodge trucks.
2:could be the plugs, maybe one is fouled, in which case its best to replace all 16 if you have the hemi.
3:could be an exhaust leak, probably from the headers, loose/broke bolt, or possible partial blown gasket
4: or it could be the heat shield being loose, in that case tighten it up and see if it fixed it.
i hope this info helps, im tearing into my problem tomorrow to see if these people are full of it lol. i sure hope not.