New lifters and the tick persists!

[mercuryzephyrz7]

As title mentioned, I threw in a set of new lifters after soaking them in oil overnight, as well as a new set of pushrods. After they were all installed, torqued the rockers to 20 ft lbs and primed the oil pump. I got oil out of every rocker in the engine, so I buttoned it all back up and fired it and it has the same tick that it had before. Sounds too "mechanical" to be an exhaust leak...but I've been wrong before. It's pretty loud, you can hear it while sitting inside the car at idle.

'84 302 HO
'89 302 heads
stock cam, lifters, pushrods, and rockers

Any ideas on what else it could be?

[Greywolf]

Exhaust leak would still be first guess.
Rod knock or piston slap? Timing chain slop?
Actually, could it be a misfire or wrong sequence on spark plugs?

[mercuryzephyrz7]

Exhaust leak would still be first guess.
Rod knock or piston slap? Timing chain slop?
Actually, could it be a misfire or wrong sequence on spark plugs?

I'll check my exhaust bolts tonight, as far as rod knock or piston slap go I don't know how that would be possible with all stock internals.

Like I said, it's a stock '84 302 with stock '89 heads. The only thing I've done is replace the lifters and pushrods and I torqued my rockers to 20 ft lbs. It doesn't make any noise when I turn the motor with a socket on the crank bolt, or when it turns over with the key. It only makes the noise while it's running.

As far as the wrong firing order goes, I didn't know if my 302 had the HO order or not, but I got it to fire on the 1-3 order instead of the 1-5 and it runs pretty smooth which implies I have the firing order correct.

Exhaust leak seems most likely here, i'll investigate it this weekend more.

Anyone else have an exhaust leak that they thought was something mechanical before?

[Zap's 85 GT]

What brand of lifters? I recently had some bad ones from Comp that I'm sending back under warranty.

[Ford'sCapri]

What headers/exhaust manifolds and H or Y pipe are you using? I ask because I have had the connection at the header to H pipe leak because I didn't tighten the bolts up enough and they had worked themselves loose causing a ticking noise.

[83t-topp]

Anyone else have an exhaust leak that they thought was something mechanical before?[/QUOTE]

I did.
blew a piece of the header gasket out.
(right after a couple smoky burnouts)
thought I'd done some serious engine damage .
boy was I relieved to find out it was just an exhaust leak.

[mercuryzephyrz7]

I'm not sure what brand of lifters they are, I got them in a plain white box along with my cam and pushrods from a Delta Cams in Tacoma, WA. They have been there forever and a few older guys turned me on to them.

I have stock '79 exhaust manifolds and the stock exhaust on it right now. I checked the bolts to the block and they were all good, but it is hanging underneath pretty low because the mount that hooks to the tranny isn't there anymore

Also, I took off my valve covers and it's still there, but quieter. It looks like my rockers are hitting my covers a little, but there is still a tick inside the engine and I can feel it when I touch the distributor.

[NAVYCAT]

you should use a thicker exhaust gasket

[mercuryzephyrz7]

you should use a thicker exhaust gasket

The only thing stopping me from pursuing an exhaust gasket is the fact that I can feel the tick when I put my hand on the distributor.

[Stymees'mont]

Distributor could be going south on you. Plus, if your engine is a 302 H.O. THEN THE FIRE ORDER SHOULD BE THE SAME AS A 351W