229 V6-- Need advice

Hi, this looks like a great forum!

I have a 1981 Chevy Malibu I bought that is in darn near like new condition with one slight problem, a small tick in the original 229 V6, it only has 50k original miles and was well maintained. Here are the details:

It will start ticking only when fully warmed up. When cold, it's quiet. It definitely sounds like a valve train tick though. The tick seems to be coming from the left (drivers) side of the engine, so I ruled out the exhaust heat riser valve as its on the other side. The tick sort of comes and goes as the engine is revved up, but is very (most) present at idle speed. Actually when you put the car in drive, the tick is hard to notice though, but idling in park it's very present and not what I consider normal.

So far I replaced the cam and lifters with new Melling parts, although the original parts removed looked fine with little noticeable wear. The timing chain had minimal play in it, and it was the original GM cam sprocket that to my surprise was not the nylon gear type. I put everything back together, but the cam and lifter set made no difference- same tick under the same conditions.

Questions?? Could the distributor gear make this sort of noise? If that's not it, what else could it be? It doesn't sound like bearing noise or anything underneath, but I'm open to ideas. I don't have the cash to replace the V6 engine with a small block at this time and am hoping I can quiet this V6 down a little until I save up for something better.

Thanks in advance for any ideas I can try to remedy the threshing machine!

-Mark-

Oh forgot to mention the rocker arms and pushrods were also replaced with new Clevite parts.

Some of the really good mechanics on here will probably post some great suggestions, but you might start by pulling one plug wire at a time, especially on the suspected side, and seeing if the noise changes or stops. (obviously use some insulated pliers, otherwise......:eek: :eek: :eek: )

I had a similar noise in one of my cars, and it turned out to be a wristpin.

Good luck.


Don

could be a bent valve stem, rist pin, or valve spring. What is your oil presure before the tick after it starts?

Thanks for the ideas, I'll need to hook up an external oil pressure gauge to check the cold vs. warm oil pressures, but I did run it for a few minutes one time with the left rocker cover off and it was squirting oil all over the valvetrain, so the pressure is likely to be OK. I tried pulling the plug wires one by one up on the distributor as they are hard to get at on the plugs, but any exposed terminal on the distributor just arced to the cap so loud I couldn't hear if it changed the tick sound**)

I'm going to put on a new distributor drive gear just for laughs, and if it still ticks after that I'll get it diagnosed by my local pro. If it's something as serious as a wrist pin or anything requiring head removal, I'll set the car aside until I can afford a nice small block V8, as I don't think the 229 is worth putting any serious time or any more money in to.

-Fordlords-

My local shop was able to have a look at the car today. They traced the ticking noise to the vacuum advance weights inside the distributor. The weights are on pins and the plastic bushings had worn out of the weights causing them to jump around and rap against the rotor shaft. They put some grease around the weights to confirm it was the noise and the noise was gone until the grease was flung off. They said they could repair it, but I told them to just go ahead and put on a rebuilt distributor, which they said was a good idea as there could be some wear in the gear and shaft also. Looks like the 229 will live a few more thousand :toocool:

-Fordlords-