Ticking turned out to be exhaust manifold
 

FWIW I recently found out that I had a broken stud on my passenger side exhaust manifold. I noticed it when it got alot louder lately and I took off the wheel well cover to have a look. When it was all said and done I had to replace the manifold along with gasket and hardware - 1 bolt had to be retapped with a heli-coil (when living near salt water everything rusts eventually). Anyways $700 later she purrs like new and I am happy with the results. It still pisses me off though about all the oil changes and oil additives I put into her trying to fix a lifter tick :icon_doh:

Glad you got it fixed, but is sounds like you missed a chance/excuse to mod your truck and put some aftermarket headers on.

wow thats alot i woulda had headers at that price....

+1!!!! dam thats expensive....

what kind of ticking noise was it?

Believe me I thought about the headers but decided against it after pricing them $$$! THis job should have taken a couple hours labor but went into OT due to a few stuck bolts and 1 that had to be retapped - and this was only the passenger side. Woulda cost over a grand to do both! Should have mentioned that this is canadian $$$ also and prices to ship to the east coast are mega expensive.

As for the sound I had been researching the so called hemi tic for quite some time (years) and all the symptoms pointed to that but only recently did it get much louder and took on an exhaust-type sound (like when my dad's crossover pipe went) and I suspected the manifold. I think anybody who has a sound like the tick should have a look at their exhaust manifolds first - seems like a common problem round here.

I will be enjoying my tick-less truck until the driver's side goes I guess LOL

I've suspected my exhaust for months. the ticking is load based on my truck. if it was lifter/valve guide tick, it would be almost completely engine speed based, load would make near no difference on it.

YEah I think your right about it being load based altough mine got so bad that it was doing it all the time (except at idle or parked and revving the engine didn't seem to do it). Judging by the rust on the "headless" bolt this had happened a good while ago but to me its still hard to believe that one less bolt could have made all that noise so I never suspected the exhaust. I was absolutely convinced that it had to be in the valves. I guess if you read too much about the "hemi tick" you start to believe you have it. Good thing I found it when I did though cause I was about to start changing valves/springs and pushrods :icon_teeth:

So it was a bolt on the exhaust manifold hey? What do you mean by load based? I think I might take my inside fender off and take a quick peak.

Load-based meaning that when your engine is working the hardest like going uphill or hauling a load. Also like when you start from a stop and the truck has to get up to speed. As opposed to a constant chattering that gets louder as your rpms go up.

Hope this helps