possible answer for 383 tick

[Darren]

hey guys i am in the process of tearing down my 383. The car is a 68 cuda survivor. When i got the car last summer it had i tick when the engine was at idle. i was hoping it was a lifter. Today i pulled the timming chain cover and i could not belive the slack in the timming chain, i can slip the cain half off the cam sprocket. The car ran petty good. And the cam sprocket looks to be plastic an missing 2 teeth. Would this cause the engine to tick with the slack in the chain? Thanks

 

[Kern Dog]

I would expect a sloppy chain to make less of a ticking sound and more of a scraping or slapping noise. The ticking could be from one or more lifters that are either failing or have gunked up oil inside that isn't allowing them to pump up. One or more worn rocker arms will also make the same ticking noise. Often when I assemble an engine I measure the rocker arms where they ride on the shafts. I aim for consistancy between them so hopefully they all have the same ratio.

 

[txstang84]

When I hear the word "tick" I think light tapping noise and think either minor exhaust leak or rocker/lifter noise. If the timing set has skipped teeth, you could be tapping a valve, but I severely doubt it. More than likely, you heard a noisy lifter.

 

[rbdart]

When I hear the word "tick" I think light tapping noise and think either minor exhaust leak or rocker/lifter noise. If the timing set has skipped teeth, you could be tapping a valve, but I severely doubt it. More than likely, you heard a noisy lifter.

I agree