Hey guys I have a 95 Firebird Formula that ticks cold or warm, 5 times fast, every 10 seconds or so at idle. As the rpm goes up, the ticking happens more frequently. I assume it’s something in the valvetrain, but I would think that it would tick every rotation if that was the case. Does anyone have any ideas on what this could be? Any help is very appreciated. Video of the ticking, it occurs at roughly 3 and 14 seconds through the video.

 

Do you have a stethoscope? You can use it to pinpoint the area.

 

Yes I do, I have tried it and it seems to be somewhere on the driver’s side. I also ran it without the serpentine belt and the ticking seemed to stop

 

Than I would look closer to your accessories if the tick stops with belt removed

With that said a "ticking" can be a exhaust manifold leak due to broken manifold bolt or crack exhaust manifold...but you note no tick without belt so I would focus on each accessory as source of noise

 

It doesn't sound like a broken exhaust bolt but it's super easy to check them. You can feel the area and verify the head of the bolt is there. My rear one was broken off and caused a leak. It sounds like it's very common on the factory exhaust manifold. Best part is you can change to aftermarket headers that don't use that bolt hole, so no worries.

 

I just tried running the car without the serpentine belt again, but this time while the car was warm, and the ticking occurred, so I am thinking that it is something internal. I have long tube headers and I am thinking that it is not exhaust related because the noise seems to be coming from the valve covers or cylinder heads and does not coincide with the exhaust pulses. Does anyone know of something internally that could be causing this noise?

 

Listening with a stethoscope when you put it on the valve covers works great. It's the easiest spot on the engine to access. It would definitely eliminate a possible issue if you didn't hear the ticking.