I installed a new set of stock heads on my 2001 5.9 ram a couple weeks ago. When I started it up it sounded like I had an exhaust leak. Took it in and did have one behind the cat and welded it up. I thought is still had an exhaust leak and the guys probed around and told me it is an engine tick not exhaust. I now agree with them.

When idling there is no ticking. Under power I can hear it and between 2200 and 2900 RPMs the valve train really starts singing. Thought I could live with it, but I can't. Pulled the covers and rechecked the torque. All were tight. Nothing was loose or rattling.

Thought about new rockers, pushrods, lifters..... I don't mind spending the money if I can narrow it down to the actual problem. How do I find what's the ticking?

Sounds like it's coming from the passenger side. I have read:
- Change the oil (did that 10-40w)
- Run some Lucas or Rislone through there to see if it cleans it up.
- Take off the cover, disconnect the coil, turn the motor over to make sure oil is getting to the rockers.
- While in there checking for flow try to narrow down the location of the tick.
- Pull the rockers and blow out all the pushrods, check rockers for wear.

Any other suggestions?

 

If it's not a lifter, I'd still wager the exhaust manifolds are leaking.

 

Dang exhaust leaks are a pita to track.. unless: seafoam is your friend for finding them.. but just because you don't see it then, doesn't mean it isn't there..

New heads? Make sure you have good even seats with your push rods to the rocker.. give a look at the valve guides.. inspect the springs...

I'm with aim though... Exhausteaks are tricky.. 'specially at the manifold..

 

I like really cold mornings at startup to help track exhaust leaks but then it's too cold to work on the truck.

Another method I've used is a rubber hose up to my ear. Put the other en up to suspect locations. Funnily enough it actually works.

 

Have you fixed the plenum yet? Mine is in need of fixing and when under acceleration often the valves will rattle or the "can of marbles" sound.

Edit: The valve rattle on my truck comes from the driver side.

 

Another sumpthin sumpthin to maybe consider..

There is danger in over filling the crankcase.. it does the same thing as under filling.. the happenstance that makes it dangerous is that the oil becomes saturated with tiny bubbles.. you know, like your beer.. or, like my beer.. I've had a few of those tonight.. little bubbles in the fluid volume of oil doesn't lubricate like oil in the fluid volume of oil, if you can kinnit.. that's bad..

guess what else it does? It gives the trash cans, er, uh, lifters an undercharge.. know what an under charged lifter sounds like? Tic tic tic, times up.. it sounds like tic tic tic..

Pull your dipstick and make sure your not too full.

 

At first I thought this was an exhaust leak. I had installed the exhaust manifold gaskets that came with the Felpro kit although there were none on there from the factory. I took it to 2 different places and they both climbed around with stethoscopes with a piece of brake tubing attached looking for leaks. These guys were both reputable and said the same thing, no leaks. As mentioned I changed the oil, checked the level, have run a quart of Rislone for about 300 miles now and did the plenum earlier this year. Still ticks….

Wanting to learn why this is happening I have started researching lifters and their functionality. I found the following article on lifters that helped me understand so I thought I would share.

“A Hydraulic Valve Lifter, also known as a hydraulic tappet or a hydraulic lash adjuster, is a device for maintaining zero valve clearance in an internal combustion engine. The conventional means of adjusting valve actuation always requires a small clearance to be left between the valve and its rocker or cam follower to allow for thermal expansion and wear. The hydraulic lifter was designed to ensure that the valve train always operates with zero clearance, leading to quieter operation and eliminating the need for periodic adjustment of valve clearance.


The hydraulic lifter consists of a hollow expanding piston situated between the camshaft and valve. It is operated either by a rocker mechanism, or in the case of one or more overhead camshafts , directly by the camshaft. The lifter is filled with engine oil intermittently from an oil gallery via a small drilling. When the engine valve is closed, the lifter is free to fill with oil. When the valve is opening and the lifter is being operated by the camshaft, the oil feed is blocked and the lifter acts just as a solid one would, oil being incompressible.”



Now that I better understand lifters and their functionality, I started thinking about the ticking. With 150,000 miles on the truck the lifters were pretty much worn between a certain range of thousands of an inch. The only thing I replaced recently were the heads. Original lifters, pushrods and rockers were reinstalled. When the new heads were installed there is the possibility that the valves were a slight bit longer and may have compressed the lifter into an area that is hadn’t previously be operating and have now from what I understand has “collapsed” the lifter. If the hydraulic piston is stuck, it is not allowing the lifter to completely fill with oil, leaving a gap between the end of the pushrod and the socket and/or rocker. This would cause the tick.

I have seen pullers that look like a slide hammer and go through the pushrod path, hook onto the lifter and pull the lifter plunger back up into operating range. Has anyone used this method and does it work?

Otherwise it seems like replacing the lifters would cure most ticking problems unless you have excessive wear on the rocker/pushrod or a bent pushrod. New lifters would expand and take up any lash in the valve train. Am I on the right track here?

 

does not work.. you gotta pull the intake manifold, and pull the spider, and the dog bones off to get a lifter out..

sorry, dude.. it's a PITA.. the corner ones can be problematic, but WILL slide past the head gasket tabs if you ctach the right angle..

 

OK, fair enough. That's why I'm asking questions so I can learn before I screw something up.

Am I under the correct assumption that if the pushrods are not bent the there is no excessive wear on the rockers, I can replace the lifters and when the new lifters fill with oil they will more likely than not take out the lash in the valve train? ....and eliminate the tick?

 

It sucks that you have to go back in, more than likely yes, 100% guarantee nope. I did this not to long ago. I am not sure what lifters you are going to get, but I can tell you that the Mopar performance lifters are much cheaper than stock replacements, it's one of those things the parts guy at the dealer just shakes his head at.