Bump, I really need help on this one :l

 

Ticking? Could be a lot of things from a lot of areas....

To be sure you didn't drop items in the spark-plug wells, you should check all 8 to be sure and run the engine till you can pin point where the sound is coming from.

Check and make sure you Engine-oil is at the right level and see if you need to replace the Timing-chain guides and the oil-pressured tensioners.

Again could be a lot of individual happenings that are wrong.

How loud is the ticking?

 

Well the ticking started right after the manifold install. It is moderately loud, you can hear it sitting in the car and the engine at idle. I'll get a vid of it later.

 

I don't know how many times I'd start it if the noise is that bad. I had a bad experience. Maybe just tear it apart again

 

I am going to chekc all the spark plugs today than go from there. I cuoldnt imagine it being anymore severe than that.

 

:dunno

 

I'd say spark plugs because I had a little tick, one of them turned out to be loose torqued it back down to spec, tick went away. hope thats what it is for you bud

 

Thats what I wanted to hear, I hope thats all it is too! How bad was the ticking?

 

It was decent. Could only really hear it in the driver side wheel well and real bad at drive thrus. not too bad when opening the hood.

 

Update:

Changed all the spark plugs with my new NGK TR6's, and its still as bad as it was before.... I am just going to go back to the shop this weekend and take it all apart again and inspect the inside of the heads.

Still, anyone have any idea what the ticking sound may be? I just dont want it to be something stupid like the alternator needs to have all bolts torqued so precisely otherwise it ticks and shakes...

 

is the gasket bad/pinched? did you use the right pattern to tighten it? its not just randomly tighten screws (not sure I havent read the posts, just offering my .02)

 

Good catch, but I did do the right pattern unbolting and bolting it down, with new gaskets, and tq specs in 2 stages of torqing :l I hope it as something as simple as that.

I honestly think I dropped soemthing in the head.... When I went to change the plug, the plug closest to the thermostat (anybody have cylander numbers?) was gapped about .020 bigger than it should be. All others were stock at .055. I put the new ones at .035

 

was the surface area well cleaned on both the heads and manifold? it sounds to me like you have a leak at the gasket somewhere...

 

New gaskets, I did wipe down the surface. It was really clean, just had some grime. It was covered by a gasket for its life. Ill double check the seal though when I take it apart. I understand where your coming from, a ticking sound could be a leak, but this ticking sounds very distinctive.

 

leaks sound like ticking. ticking sounds are distinctive though. you can keep running around in circles troubleshooting, or you can just re-do the job all over and try following step by step through a haynes or chilton repair manual and maybe try their torque recommendations, and bolt down patterns, etc. When I was 17, when i first bought my mustang, it had a cracked plastic intake so i swapped it over to a aluminum crossover and i had little to no auto mechanic knowledge. followed that damn repair guide step by step and when i drove it, it ran fabulous and had no leaks.

if you do that job all over again and it still ticks, you may have a leak somewhere else. if its a leak in your vacuum system you can tell by lightly spraying carb cleaner around vac lines and when the engine revs up slightly thats where its sucking in carb cleaner... if its a compression leak, you could do a compression test to completely rule out engine gaskets, then check exhaust manifolds for leak if you think the tick noise is coming from down there.... idk?

idk about the 0.35 gap either, should be about .42 if im not mistaken? can someone correct me if im wrong?

 

Update: I re-installed the entire intake manifold. I even inspected the valves and heads from what I could see. It was all very clean looking, I did not see anything loose in there. After re-installing the intake manifold, it still ticked like nothing ever happened. So than I came to the conclusion it is probably my alternator, and the bearing inside is causing the ticking. What really led me to think it was the alternator was that my battery light came on, and I have a brand new Optima red top. So today, I replaced the alternator, and its still Fuc#$ng ticking....

Any ideas m8's?

 

Bad injector?

 

I wish, the ticking/knocking is a bit more violant than that. It even shakes the engine just a bit.

 

Hey man, I am going through this as well, did ya ever figure out if it was the intake?