It has gradually began to get worse the ticking sound coming from the engine i may upload a clip of it tonight. Its defenitly coming from the right side of the engine somewhere it does it at idle when accelerating and decelerating the ticking gets faster as you accelerate.

What do i need to remove on this engine to get to all the valve train components?

What do you gueys think it could be???

Also recently a popping noise can be heard from the air vents and you can feel little puffs of air coming from them what would this be??



Thanks

Jared.

 

Could be a collapsing lifter or a worn cam lobe. To get to the lifters, you have to pull the whole intake off (search for the "D-tips" intake gasket replacement article).

As far as the popping noise, it may be the blend door getting stuck and slipping on the drive gear.

 

Basically my Mechanic left me empty handed he said since its a moving part they could not pinpoint what the exact problem is his suggestion he said would be to replace the lifters which he says would cost about 1K and then that might not even be the problem. He makes it sound like there is no way to find out what it is.

 

Sure there is, it just takes work. The work to check for a collapsed lifter or a worn cam lobe require the same amount of disassembly. You have to remove the intake to gain access to the lifters. A dial indicator can be used to check the lobe lift. Measure, record, and compare all of the lobe lifts. If they are all practically identical, then I would be led to believe that a lifter has gone bad. Lifters do not cost $1k to replace, for that I am certain.

 

Yeah im guessing i was fed a load of Bs because the next suggestions he said would be to have a complete overhaul of the motor done now something ticking even if it where a wore down camshaft wouldnt require the motor to be rebuilt. I know that also You dont believe this could be an exhaust leak do you???

Or even the lower intake gasket leaking antifreeze into the crankcase which i really doubt is the problem on this 04 the Mechanic said he is certain that would not cause this noise.

 

Based on your earlier descriptions, I had not mentioned exhaust leak, but it is possible. Exhaust leaks can have you thinking bad things for sure.

The easiest way to check for exhaust leaks is with a mechanics stethoscope. Just trace along all exhaust gasket surfaces with the engine running.