66gt350
Active Member
Well, I've been trying to track down a mystery noise in the wife's 65 coupe. Here's the history of what I've done and the results:
It all started off with a tickin' noise. It sounded like a loose rocker. I pulled off the valve covers to adjust the valves. Come to find out that the heads are none adjustable. I grabbed my straight edge to check the rocker studs. The driver's side was good, but the passenger side the straight edge rocked a little...so one stud was pulling loose. I have a set of 289 heads on the shelf that has been worked over: ported, polished, larger valves, guide plates, screw in studs, and roller rockers. On a weekend, we did a head swap. Got the engine buttoned up, and cranked up the motor. Tick...tick...tick. no change. We adjusted the valves about 6-8 times to make sure that it wasn't a loose rocker.
The next idea that came to mind was a bad lifter. So, we did a cam/lifter swap. Everything looked good when doing the swap. No obvious problems. Got the new cam/lifters in. And while we were working on it, I had an aluminum water pump we installed and put on a new intake and carb. Again, we buttoned up the engine and fired it up to break in the cam. Shortly after firing it up, again...tick...tick...tick. no change.
I'm starting to run out of ideas. So, I grabbed my poor mans stethoscope, a hardwood dowel, to listen to the motor. There was no noise on either valve cover, water pump, fuel pump. When I placed the dowel on the intake, I could hear the ticking noise. There should be nothing hitting intake. I guess it's time to yank the motor and rip it apart.
This weekend, we yanked the motor. It definitely wasn't an exhaust leak. All of the gaskets were in excellent condition. The valves weren't hitting the piston. The rods and pistons are in good condition. As were all of the rod bearings, they looked practically new. I haven't pulled any main bearing, yet, but there's no movement back and forth in the crank. Inspecting the motor, I've seen no indication of anything hammering. The only things I've noticed was one motor mount on the engine was slightly loose, and my mystery pieces in the pan: Mystery pieces. But those pieces should just be down at the bottom of the pan and not affecting anything...I hope.
This is about to turn me into a raving alcoholic. I've had several people that know engines listen, and they're as stumped as I am. I can't find anything that would make a mechanical ticking noise. I'm at the point of finding a short block and putting that it.
It all started off with a tickin' noise. It sounded like a loose rocker. I pulled off the valve covers to adjust the valves. Come to find out that the heads are none adjustable. I grabbed my straight edge to check the rocker studs. The driver's side was good, but the passenger side the straight edge rocked a little...so one stud was pulling loose. I have a set of 289 heads on the shelf that has been worked over: ported, polished, larger valves, guide plates, screw in studs, and roller rockers. On a weekend, we did a head swap. Got the engine buttoned up, and cranked up the motor. Tick...tick...tick. no change. We adjusted the valves about 6-8 times to make sure that it wasn't a loose rocker.
The next idea that came to mind was a bad lifter. So, we did a cam/lifter swap. Everything looked good when doing the swap. No obvious problems. Got the new cam/lifters in. And while we were working on it, I had an aluminum water pump we installed and put on a new intake and carb. Again, we buttoned up the engine and fired it up to break in the cam. Shortly after firing it up, again...tick...tick...tick. no change.
I'm starting to run out of ideas. So, I grabbed my poor mans stethoscope, a hardwood dowel, to listen to the motor. There was no noise on either valve cover, water pump, fuel pump. When I placed the dowel on the intake, I could hear the ticking noise. There should be nothing hitting intake. I guess it's time to yank the motor and rip it apart.
This weekend, we yanked the motor. It definitely wasn't an exhaust leak. All of the gaskets were in excellent condition. The valves weren't hitting the piston. The rods and pistons are in good condition. As were all of the rod bearings, they looked practically new. I haven't pulled any main bearing, yet, but there's no movement back and forth in the crank. Inspecting the motor, I've seen no indication of anything hammering. The only things I've noticed was one motor mount on the engine was slightly loose, and my mystery pieces in the pan: Mystery pieces. But those pieces should just be down at the bottom of the pan and not affecting anything...I hope.
This is about to turn me into a raving alcoholic. I've had several people that know engines listen, and they're as stumped as I am. I can't find anything that would make a mechanical ticking noise. I'm at the point of finding a short block and putting that it.
