I have a clicking/tapping noise coming from drivers side cylinder head.It is a constant clicking/tapping at warm up idle and increases with rpm’s.I have ruled out a cracked exhaust and am at my wits end in the search.By the way this is from a '69 chevy 350 four barreled carb.My insticts tell me a valve train issue.Am i right?
You might have a collapsed lifter.
Tester
Hope you didn’t have a rocker arm come off. You could easily pull the valve cover and check and make sure the clearances look good. I don’t know if you’re running solid lifter or hydraulic, or your mechanical ability, so it’s hard to offer more info without some feedback first.
It’s very easy to remove the valve cover on the early 350s so I would advise pulling the cover, feeling around on the rocker arms, and noting if any seem to be excessively loose.
If so, either a faulty lifter, eroded pushrod end, or camshaft lobe going flat. (Hopefully not the latter)
I’ve seen a few bad pushrods on early V-8s in which the end would erode due to years of accumulated sludge plugging up the oil feed hole in the pushrod. Eventually the metal simply starts disentegrating. Any lifter or pushrod problem is easy and cheap to fix; a camshaft problem is much more pricy.
thanks for the reply. what will be my best option, replace or repair?
thanks…this made alot of sense.i appreciate your help.