Unfortunately my man, that sounds a lot like mine and mine is not the manifold gaskets nor did sea foam help it at all. Tomorrow I will be changing the oil and replacing one full quart with Lucas Oil Stabilizer to see if that quiets her down.

 

so does anyone know what it is? Other than this noise the engine is running fine, idling fine and doesn't generally have any problems.

 

Anyone got an idea about what causes this problem? I'd really like to get it fixed as soon as I can.

 

I'm having the same sound coming from my 03 Dodge Ram 1500 4.7. I have looked and have not seemed to find an exhaust leak or broken manifold bolt. Besides the noise at start up and a little ticking during acceleration the truck runs perfectly fine. Any help you could provide would be great maybe we can figure it out together.


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Check passanger side rear 2 exhaust manifold bolts. That is the most common side and those are the ones that break first.

 

but the sound is clearly coming from the drivers side....or it sounds a lot more pronounced on that side.

Besides, my issue is not manifold bolts, it's internal to the engine.

 

so take it all apart and find that mystery noise that isn't causing any problems other than some noise... ?

 

nobody really knows for sure what causes it. you will get a handfull of reasons. but it usually doesnt mean engine failure is imminent. I hate ticks on any motor.. it drives me crazy thinking about it and listening to it. But, I do love the Hemi engine so much that i have learned to exept it.

 

Is there possibly a video on how to remove the valve covers?? It looks simple sure, remove the bolts and pull off covers but in my experience nothing is ever that easy.

There comes the problem of how the hell do I reach the bolts way at the back under the brake booster and stuff. There appears to be no easy way to do.

I want to take it to a shop but it's gonna cost roughly $400 just to have them LOOK at it.

 

My 2002 RAM with the 4.7 has been tapping since the day I bought it 6 years ago, other than being annoying I have not found it to be an issue. What I have found is the oil you use make a big difference.

I experimented with heaver oils and found that actually makes the tap worse. Best bet is to stick with 5W-30 and I also switched to Mobil 1 due to the condensation issue with the plastic fill tube. Synthetic oil does not seem to have the issue like the dino oil does. Lastly I am religious about replacing 1 quart of the oil with a quart of MMO. I swear by this stuff and use it in both my vehicles.

Just my experience, but I find the MMO combined with the Synt oil seems to keep the ticking to a minimum and seems to go away once the engine has warmed up fully. My Motor has 164,000 miles on it.