Snape, Snape, Severus Snape (The Mysterious Ticking Noise)

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Joined
Oct 24, 2023
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Location
Alaska
My Car
'73 Coupe 302 Auto
I'll try to be more descriptive with my titles but this noise reminds too much of the Potter Puppet Pals video, it gets stuck in my head every time.
Anyone have armchair guesses for what this noise could be? It is very regular, increases speed with RPMs. Sounds like its coming from driver's side near 7/8 but I can't tell exactly.

My mechanic has rescheduled a few times on me, which is fine because this is a project and I don't depend on it for main transportation (unlike his customer's he's been pushing me back for, which I totally understand). I ask because my curiosity/fear of doing damage if I let it run too long is running rampant. I've only made a couple 30ft drives to the garage and back outside again.

Basically, I'm bad at diagnosing mechanical problems. I can follow instructions and turn a wrench so if I have ideas of what could be causing this, I'm happy to dig in and check/fix.

If the only answer is that it has to be seen in person and can't be diagnosed over video, you won't hurt my feelings by telling me so.

Hope everyone's having/had a great Friday!
 

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Hard to tell with the video, but my ear says valvetrain or an exhaust leak.

Have a competent person hold the brake while in gear and apply a little bit of throttle. Exhaust will get significantly louder and faster when you apply a load, valvetrain will generally only get faster with engine RPM, not much louder.
 
Great idea Hemikiller. To my ear (through the video, anyway) it sounds like a valve train problem, or a tappet.
I'd say try the brake-on throttle test, and see if it's something simple like an exhaust leak at a cylinder.
 
Get a mechanics stethoscope ( Harbor Freight or similar) and go along the valve covers, exhaust ports etc. If it's there, you'll hear it. It may help to localize the noise.
 
This is a shot in the dark, but it happened to me on a 65 Mustang I had years ago. I had a noise that sounded like a bad lifter. As it turned out, it was a loose sparkplug due to worn out threads. It was a compression leak at the spark plug. I would have to retighten it every so often and the noise would go away. Just a thought but worth looking at.
 
I'll try to be more descriptive with my titles but this noise reminds too much of the Potter Puppet Pals video, it gets stuck in my head every time.
Anyone have armchair guesses for what this noise could be? It is very regular, increases speed with RPMs. Sounds like its coming from driver's side near 7/8 but I can't tell exactly.

My mechanic has rescheduled a few times on me, which is fine because this is a project and I don't depend on it for main transportation (unlike his customer's he's been pushing me back for, which I totally understand). I ask because my curiosity/fear of doing damage if I let it run too long is running rampant. I've only made a couple 30ft drives to the garage and back outside again.

Basically, I'm bad at diagnosing mechanical problems. I can follow instructions and turn a wrench so if I have ideas of what could be causing this, I'm happy to dig in and check/fix.

If the only answer is that it has to be seen in person and can't be diagnosed over video, you won't hurt my feelings by telling me so.

Hope everyone's having/had a great Friday!
Fuel pump
 
If you don't have a stethoscope then just stick a piece of wood, like a hammer handle or broom handle up against your ear and touch along the top of the valve cover across the length of it. If the sound becomes louder or clear in one section, it is likely a lifter or a rod. You might get lucky with the loose spark plug issue as well.

Check each spark plug to make sure they are all firing individually. It could be a fouled plug but not likely with loud of a thud.

It doesn't sound like an exhaust leak to be. I have a 5.7L Hemi in my Ram 2500 and it has the Hemi tick (broken stud on the exhaust manifold) and your noise doesn't sound like an exhaust leak to me.
 
Some great ideas all, thank you. I'll try to dig into exhaust leakage, fuel pump, and valve train. I replaced spark plugs and wires already and the sound didn't change a bit. This vid was post-plug change actually.
 
A stethoscope is the cheap/easy place to start - using that, you should be able to quickly determine if it's an exhaust leak or not, which could save both time and money. If its not a leak, you should still be able to quickly narrow it down to a specific location, which is also helpful.
 
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