I recently had a ticking noise in my TA, so I took it to the local shop to see if I had a bad lifter, or an exhaust leak, or whatever. He went ahead and adjusted my valves. Now, the ticking went away, but the idling was terrible, sounded like the car was about to die. He adjusted the springs again, idling got better, and the ticking was still gone. However, I noticed a great loss in power. So, a different mechanic came by(a friend), started to adjust the screws on my carb and the bolt on my distributor. He also fixed up one of my spark plub wires. The car ran better, but only slightly so. So, a few days later, I take it back to the original mechanic, told him about the loss of power, and he basically did the same things as my friend did, only adjusted a few more bolts. He never looked at the valve springs. Oh, also, I don't have a pointer so I don't know what my timing is. My ticking noise came back too. He said it was a bad lifter. I'm going to take it to another shop today, so I can get my original power back. This is beginning to get frustrating. I don't know what to do.

 

If the lifters were "ticking" and the engine ran strong before the adjustment, my guess would be they have them too tight...hanging open lossing compression...get this fixed/checked ASAP, so you don't burn a valve.

Boilt by the distributor was to adjust timing, lak of "pointer" is an issue, but a decent wrench will figure it out okay. If you're still computer controlled, he needs to discinnect the EST bypass...even when setting "by ear".

Suggest you take it to a qualified person who can:

1. Recheck the lifter adjustment and do it properly.
2. Adjust base timing accordingly.

If still ticking, then a qualified guy/gal (gotta be PC) should be able to tell you what the real issue is.

 

If your mechanic adjusted the valves, there's almost no way he/she could have missed the springs.

I'll second the thought on the tight lash adjustment, and the need to have it done correctly ASAP to prevent valve and seat burning, or worse yet, piston slamming.

Tell your mechanic to try no more than ¼-½ turns past the zero lash point to prevent this problem and limit valve float from lifter pump-up.