Ticking/Exhaust Leak?

[Brad208]

Howdy,

My truck has developed a ticking noise. It occurs mostly on deceleration especially with no throttle input, down to about 1,100rpm. It is in time with the engine.

I noticed this noise after I had just worked on it: Comp 910 springs and an intercooler. I was suspicious of the valve train so I pulled the valve cover off the passenger side (sounds like it's coming from passenger side) and checked torque on rockers. All good. Ran engine with vc off and nothing is jumping out at me.

Monkeyed with the intercooler piping, down pipe, fixed a fuel leak just in case I was pumping air, did a buzz test. All good. Injectors have 5k miles or so on them, same as fuel system and kc300x 63/73 turbo. No ticking prior to the latest round of parts (springs and intercooler).

What do you think?

 

[Brad208]

https://youtu.be/NiwlHH9i-Bs
Sorry for the double post but here is a short video of the sound. Listen closely around 0:09 and 0:20.

 

[Magnum PD]

Any soot seen anywhere?

 

[Brad208]

Nothing that I've seen. The passenger side under the manifold of pretty greasy so some soot could potentially go unnoticed... There was a slight discoloration at the manifold to uppipe ball joint when I was scrutinizing tonight but it doesn't look like when some soot has leaked out of joints in the past.

Thank you for the time/response. Means a lot.

 

[Brad208]

Ok I was under the hood cranking the turbo exhaust housing-to-collector bolts a little tighter and was able to quiet down the tick a bit. Looks like the passenger side donut might be a little darker than the driver's side one. Went ahead and snapped off a 1/4" extension attempting to tighten the flange so I don't think it's loose.

Dang it... I was hoping to get away with keeping stock up pipes since I resealed them a few years ago concurrent to the ZF-5 swap. I guess if/when my clutch goes I will do bellows. I love FFD, are their up pipes any good?

 

[Brad208]

Hey all I have an update. I installed a set of FFD bellowed up pipes a few weeks ago. Really nice product with good welds and the fitment was good.

I still have an exhaust leak pre-turbo. I've been going through the whole thing trying to get the pipes situated better and every time I think I've found "The problem" and fixed it, I go drive around and continue to hear the tick.

I'm seeing a decent drop in bottom end and midrange drive pressure/boost resulting from it and a little concerned about the leak possibly being on the passenger side. Since the pyro is in the driver's manifold it could be an issue towing IMO since I don't know what the passenger side is doing...

I'm thinking I may have to drop it off at an exhaust shop/ mechanic for them to find the leak, since evidently I don't have the skill to nail down the issue.

Anybody else experienced exhaust leaks that persist after up pipes? Is there a magic way to install the turbo/collector/up pipes so they don't leak? I followed the riff raff directions. I don't see soot on manifolds but is that a common leak point?

 

[Sixfoh]

Our first diesel, a 99 7.3 did have leaky exhaust manifold(s). Back then we were about the "quick" and easy fixes. Bought a set of dorman replacements. Not even a 100 miles and it blew a 1/2" sized hole out of it. Cheap and poorly casted manifolds gave us a valuable lesson. Anything worth doing is worth doing the right way. Got a set of oem manifolds and havent looked back for almost 10 years. Id put my money on manifolds in your case seeing as how youve done the up pipes already. Try to see if you can pinpoint the tap with the engine running. A piece of paper near the leak will move and indicate a leak. Could feel around with your hand but thats more risky. Anyways. Take your time, get a helper and identify the location of the leak before replacing parts. Those manifold bolts can snap and make for quite the project.

 

[Patrick Feeley]

Have you checked the exhaust manifold(s)-to-head areas? It is fairly common for the bolts to break. Also there is no gasket from the factory, although they are available. Cheers!

 

[Brad208]

Thanks guys! I'm with you thinking it can't be up pipes at this point.

I also talked to Caylon at FFD this morning and he mentioned his truck had similar symptoms when he had one bent and one broken pushrod. I just did the valve springs when this all started happening... maybe I didn't inspect the stock pushrods well enough before reinstalling?

I'm probably going to pull some spares off the parts truck and dive into that real quick before going back to my exhaust leak hunting. At least to quiet my original suspicions of valve-train-related-mishchief.

 

[Patrick Feeley]

Remember to put the engine in the 11 o'clock position when removing/reinstalling pushrods, otherwise you can get "lifter jacking" from residual oil pressure. Cheers!

 

[Brad208]

I've heard of lifter jacking, but I'm not totally sure how that works. I put the engine in what I thought was the 11 position when I reassembled everything the first time, but I don't really know what lifter jacking is or what the symptoms would be and what would happen if I didn't get it in the right position the first time. Thoughts?

 

[Patrick Feeley]

In a nutshell: When the engine is in the 11 o'clock position, there is a drain path for oil to drain from lifter galleries. If it is not and there is residual oil pressure, when the pushrod is removed the lifter can jack up (effectively get longer ... they are hydraulic lifters vice solid lifters). If the pushrod is put back in it can cause the valve to lift more than it should and you could end up with the valve hitting the piston ... not good! Cheers!

 

[Brad208]

Ok so then as long as they're installed with the engine in the right position they should be ok even if they were removed in the wrong position correct? Because the lifters will be able to drain at that point? Good chance I wasn't watching sh%& when I pulled them but I got it where it goes when I installed them.

 

[Patrick Feeley]

Yes, you should be good. Cheers!

 

[lincolnlocker]

Ok so then as long as they're installed with the engine in the right position they should be ok even if they were removed in the wrong position correct? Because the lifters will be able to drain at that point? Good chance I wasn't watching sh%& when I pulled them but I got it where it goes when I installed them.

Did you find any bent pushrods?

live life full throttle

 

[Brad208]

Just pulled the passenger side VC off real quick before work and checked the exhaust PRs. They've all got some bending. None of them touch in the middle when I roll them across a flat surface, but they're close. There's always a question of "how bad is bad?" but I think she's gonna get a new set.

 

[Brad208]

I checked the rest at lunch. There's three or four intake PRs with some bow to them and basically all of the exhaust ones have some bow. Again, the middles aren't quite touching the surface I roll them across.This isn't necessarily looking like the proverbial "smoking gun" at first blush... Can anybody chime in on whether this amount of damage could be causing a ticking noise and low boost/low power scenario? I'm going to repair it but I really don't know whether I'll notice any difference...

 

[Brad208]

Ok last update for now.

I pulled the PRs out of my parts truck after work, and combining both sets I found 14 fairly straight ones... :fustrate: So I found the straightest two of the 18 crappy ones and installed everything. The ticking is much quieter and isolated to the side I put the crap rods in.

I've been against getting upgraded PRs out of perceived prudence (leave an easy weak point) but I think I'm going to install them in the future. Thanks everybody!

 

[Brad208]

Installed a set of aftermarket pushrods the other day. It helped a lot with performance and the engine seems to run smoother but it does still tick. Pretty weird stuff.

 

[lincolnlocker]

Installed a set of aftermarket pushrods the other day. It helped a lot with performance and the engine seems to run smoother but it does still tick. Pretty weird stuff.

Bent valve from playing whack a mole with the piston.

live life full throttle