TekViper

I can hear a very distinctive ticking/tapping sound right behind the intake manifold, just before the distrubutor cap. you cant hear really hear it if you stand in front of the engine, but if you stand right by that part of the engine, behind the opened hood, u can hear it very clearly. any idea's as to what it is? is that just the "normal" distributor noise?

squirrelybird

check the PCV valve. my old one did that....couple bucks later, it's gone. maybe try to take out the PCV valve and see if you hear it??

TekViper

i replaced the pcv valve in january. i was listening to it again and i think it might be my EGR valve. i have a leak that ive know about for a while, but it sounds different when u stand behind the engine. not completely sure, but that might be it.

Joe_L

I remember replacing my PCV valve, and it ended up being my problem. Some how I got a defective one. So I bought another and put it in and problem was solved.

But you said you heard leakin too. It might be the EGR vavle, I have never heard of it ticking before though.

TomP

Might also be an exhaust leak at the rear of the manifold.

Nixon1

Tom..I've talked to him before and he says the EGR leak is constant-even when the engine is cold and the EGR valve should be closed...so assuming it's in the EGR unit before the valve...I was thinking that the exhaust leak from there might be enough to have the same sort of noise as a small exhaust manifold leak and be the cause of that ticking....that sound plausible to you?

TekViper

well i picked up a egr valve from a 3.1L ( or was it 2.8, cant remember) from corsica lt. not sure what year. the hood was missing from the car so the valve has been exposed to the outside for probably a long time. looks good visually but i wont know till i try it. whats the worst that can happen w/ a bad egr valve, blow my engine up?

seriously tho, is there anyway to test the egr valve? if it stays opened/closed all the time will it hurt performance or gas mileage? or is it purely emissions? as long as it fixes the leak i dont care really.

TekViper

i put on the "new" egr valve. the ticking noise i heard is still there, thinking its just the injectors.

Nixon1

EGR valve stuck closed will give you ****ty mileage but shouldn't really hurt anything except foul plugs sooner, trash your Oxygen sensor, and just do things of that nature that are associated with running constantly rich. Valve stuck open and I assume you'd get constant stalling.

Injector tick...well, I'm not sure what ELSE can cause injector tick. The only time my injectors ever ticked was when I was missing on a cylinder. But you already did the plugwires and cap and rotor and plugs I believe, so that shouldn't be it. Hope it's not a rocker arm...

white89v6

had a ticking in the rear of my engine which
came along with a studering engine. turned out my
coil was arking.

theratdude64

Whats wrong and how do you fix it if it is a rocker arm? I think that might be my problem...

redraif

I agree. My car is a pain about leaking. We finally went with header gaskets to seal it better.

If you get some...crap whats the name...I can see the can in my head..."Sea Foam"...geez...Funny name, but great product...you get it at NAPA and pour it into the intake with the car running. It will generate smoke and smells horrible, but its a great cleaner and it will point out any exhaust leaks like crazy...

That was how we tracked one of my constant leaks to the egr where is connects to the manifolds. Tick, tick, tick...just like an exhaust leak! We could not get it to stop. Darn thing kept coding too, even with a new one. Finally we gave up, plugged the hole with a block plug, and made a holeless copper gasket. So no more functional EGR. We left the hulk on for the visual test... No more codes & the car still passed emissions...