ticking sound???? any ideas
 

Have any of you guys experienced a ticking sound coming from the top of your engine?
Im thinking it has something to do with my valves or its normal for supra turbos
As the rpm climbs, the ticking gets faster.
Can anyone tell me if this is a real serious issue or if its not a big deal?
Or could it lead to something more serious if let unfixed?
Im pretty sure its coming from the head and underneath the valve cover
kinda sounds like a truck engine or a diesel?
Please let me know

Check your s-park -plugs and make sure the wires are FIRMLY sitting.

what weight oil do you run.. if you run a thick oil like a 10w30 or a 20w50 your car will be ticking in the cold weather when its not warmed up... it takes longer for the thick oil to get to the top of the motor, better off using a 5w30 in the winter

Well like the previous post stated, there could be arcing of the spark from a bad plug wire to somewhere other than the sparkplug, but you would notice a constant miss while revving the engine. The other thing that could be making the noise is a vavle clearance gone big.

The overhead cams do have close valve clearances and aren't really noisy when running, but if one starts to get more clearance then the clicking gets louder. The only way to really tell is to measure the gap between the cam and the valve, with the help of your maintenance book. If one or more are 4 or 5 thousandths off then they will be noisy and need to be reshimmed.

The oil can amplify or deaden the noise some depending on the age and viscosity of the oil. If the oil is old and thin then the dampening qualities won't be there and noise will be louder. Change the oil and put a good 40 weight oil in and listen to the noise to see if it has gone just a bit quieter. The thicker oil will cause a better film between the cam and shim and it should get quieter.

The oil is just a splash fed system on top and once the oil is up there it is lubes the cam, buckets, valve stems. Thinner won't help the noise, especially on an older engine. Clearances get larger and require more oil to fill the gaps and thicker oil or a good additive helps there.

You have other things making noises on top too. The fuel injectors are constantly opening and closing. The distributor will make a small amount of noise too. You may even have a piece of the timing belt coming off and hitting its cover.

In the extreme you could have worn out pistons and they or the wrist pins could be making noise with again too much clearance.

I know this was to vague, but maybe one of those areas mentioned might be the culprit.

Let us know.

Russ

Thanks guys youve been a real help
im going to change the oil today and ill let you know if anything changes
ive got about 150k on the original motor and turbo

Like a day after i read this my car started doing what he described. But mine is N/A It almost sounds like a rod knock but its more of a ticking noise. I can only hear it when I drive about like 3K rpm's. It almost sounds like its missing when it does it but no loss of power or anything. Please help lol im so tired of this.

I had the same problem in my old MkII - it was the hydraulic lifters.
When cold the ticking is pretty loud an speeds up with higher revs -
It gradually went away when the engine was warmed up

Mine doesnt go away...

Ok well i found out the problem.....

You guys are going to mash on me so hard but after I did the second head gasket job I didnt fill it back up with oil I was to excited. I didn't think about the oil that had got lost from the head.... Anyway I put a bottle of STP oil treatment in it and another quart of oil and let it run for about 10 minutes. The knock is still there but I am pretty sure its in the valvetrain somewhere.... :(

so i finally did my oil change!!!! went mobil 1 5w30 and i noticed a huge difference the car is soo much more quiter i can hardly hear the ticking, and i notice the turbo spools more freely and quickly, i could barely hear the turbo spooling before but now i can hear is spooling all the time I guess the oil in it before was really oil and nasty I also used this oil ssytem cleaner for 5 minutes before i drained the oil. Deffinelty preforms alot better!!!