engine tickin'

my 57 cj5 is has a knock/tick that makes it sound kind of like a diesel. im thinking its rod knock but im hoping my valves just need to be adjusted. it has made the sound since i bought it but today it got worse. time for a rebuild? any advice? i would rather wait to rebuild it until after memorial weekend but who knows.

 

Does it go away after the engine warmed up, then it might be a stuck lifter. If it does not and it is a rod then you risk breaking the rod and throwing it either out the oil pan or worse the block.
Happened to my 72 dodge 318. I thought it was a stock lifter, the ticking got worse and then came the thumb and the oil in the road. Luckily my piston rod came thru the oil pan.

 

one thing that also causes a ticking sound is a leaky exhaust manifold. it's very tricky since the sound, you could swear, was two metal parts hitting each other. instead, it's pulses of exhaust leaking through the exh. manifold gasket. it usually get worse as the engine warms up since the seal at the manifold gasket opens up a little. i've had this on my wrangler and re-torquing the bolts helped but the real solution was replacing the gasket. also, there was a bolt missing and some were extremely loose.

 

Is this the sound that you are talking about? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTuKWRs6K40) I was led to believe that this is normal for a mechanical lifter type of engine....if I am wrong please correct me, but I have been driving on this engine like this for nine months with no problems or changes. Most of them I have heard have some amount of ticking due to the gap in between the rods/tappets and the valve stems.....

 

Use a piece of a broom handle or a long screwdriver, a mechanics stethoscope, or or similar.

With one end held firmly close to your ear, touch the other end on different parts of the engine, one by one. You will hear various internal noises clearly, and be able to isolate the area your noise is coming from.

An exhaust leak may be found much the same way if you use a piece of tubing to locate the source.

BE CAREFUL. Don't get near any moving parts, like the fan!!!

 

Remove one plug wire with engine running and if noise is still there then put back on and goto the next. when you find the right one the knock will go away and this indicates bad rod. If noise remains whether off or on (plug wire) then try like said above with sound detector.

 

My engine sounds exactly like the one in the video. im almost positive it is valves but i will check for rod knock useing the method above. thanks everyone

 

How could i adjust the valves to get rid of the sound? im sure everything is all loosey goosey in there.

 

Here's what I found on my engine, I thought it was a rod but the noise couldn't be isolated by using the plug wire method. It quieted down about 1500 rpms.

http://earlycj5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60864&highlight=noisey+valve

 

Here's what my engine sounded like, at the bottom of this thread is a video.
http://earlycj5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53578&highlight=noisey+valve

ended up being worn out valve guides- ended up rebuilding it. runs great now.

 

So are there F-heads out there that are adjusted properly that don't sound like a coffee grinder? When I adjusted my valves last summer, I did it about four times over because of the sound, but after I posted that video, I got alot of response saying that it sounded perfectly normal. I guess I will double check them again....

 

i just learned how to do this last week.
this is what mine sounds like now.
http://s98.photobucket.com/albums/l272/billhedges/?action=view&current=zsmithwesson27-2030-1.flv