noisy lifter? or exhaust leak.

[WS6]

Only having this car for a couple months and not knowing it's exact history of mods and after fixing a couple oil leaks and doing some other things like scanmaster and guages,wires etc. I finally decided to hear it run again since it's been awhile, and I wanted to make sure I didn't create a no run problem with some of the stuff I've done.
Any-hoo, upon fire up the passenger side has a pretty audible lifter tick until it warms up ( 15 seconds or so), then it settles into just a tick. It doesn't get worse with RPM but rather subsides somewhat at that.
My question is, should I even worry about it? The previous owner pointed it out and said he never got around to looking at it, but did say he had changed to heavier valve springs when the bigger cam was installed and that maybe it was a mis adjusted rocker arm.
If I had my druthers I'd rather not get into a lifter change and if you guys think it's not an issue I'll wait till next winter. But maybe I'm glossing over something that needs attention now.

Or could it be a header leak?

I have a good steady 16" of vacuum at idle with no needle fluctuation and it it'll climb smoothly to 20" with RPM change. So I'm thinking I don't have a wiped cam lobe.
My oil pressure is super at 40lbs at idle.

Thoughts??

 

[bosted86]

mine was doing the same thing on the same side with a steady vaccuum. i pulled the cam and two lifters were chipped and the cam was toast. put new cam and lifters in it and it is quiet as a mouse.

 

[WS6]

Ouch...that wasn't what I wanted to hear

 

[Rottydogg84GN]

Well my experance was that it was the header on the pass side and not the cam.

 

[WS6]

Cracked header? or leak at the flange.

 

[turbofrank]

Do you have a scan tool ? Block and inter learn can tell you a lot.
Ticking could be
loud cam, lifters vavle train
header,intake leak
loud inj

 

[Rottydogg84GN]

It was a cracked header, flanges were good

 

[WS6]

Do you have a scan tool ? Block and inter learn can tell you a lot.
Ticking could be
loud cam, lifters vavle train
header,intake leak
loud inj

Yes,yes I do! I have a scanmaster in it and I have a datastream MPSI 9000 scan tool.

The little I ran it the other day and mostly at idle the BLMs and INT were around 121-130. BUt again that was not out on the road. Just idling in closed loop.

What shoul I be looking for in those numbers?

 

[Mike70gtx]

I was having a ticking sound that I'm sure is a lifter. It would come and go. Had had some guy suggest that I check the cam sensor. I guess it can make a similar noise. In my case I switched to royal purple 10-40w and it quit.

 

[turbofrank]

int/blk learn do the search If your #'s are where you say at idle you should be ok.