hi there all, i recently found that i had a severe valve seal leak that was a lot worse than i thought. before doing an oil change i found a ticking noise (upper engine sounding, not a knock). after doing the oil change, i only got 2.5 quarts out of 5 quarts that came out (i know my valve seal leak sucked), i fired the car back up thinking maybe it just needed an oil change, and the tick is still there. I opened it up to see what it could be, and it ws coming from the timing chain/ lifter area. took the valve covers off and applied pressure to the noisy lifter, when i applied pressure to it, it stopped ticking. i replaced the lifter and swapped rocker arms, and put it back together yesterday and its STILL DOING IT! ive spent many hours trying to figure out what it could be. i got new injectors, so its not those, the rocker arms are adjusted perfectly, its not a missfire just a tick, so its not my spark plugs. my headers arent loose. what can it be???

 

I'd bet on the lifter itself.

 

i already replaced it though, and its still doing it for some reason

 

And what normally "applies pressure" in there? There's only one component in the entire system whose job it is to "apply pressure", after all...

Most likely, that's what is broken.