Hi, looking for any ideas/advice regarding a ticking noise coming from the engine.

The noise is present regardless of engine temp and gets quicker when the car is revved.

It seems to come from the intake manifold side of the engine and I'm thinking it could be an injector. I did think it may be tappets but they're hydraulic on this model afaik and the noise sounds more like it's coming from the rear of the engine rather than out of the head.

I've got another 100hp which idles very quietly so it's definitely not a case of "they all do that sir".

Any ideas would be appreciated

Noisy tappers is quite common. They gum up an will not pressure up. They normally worse on first start up and quieter after a long run. However if you ignore them they will fail all the time.


Plenty of videos on YouTube with the sound.


If you think its an injector just disconnect them one at a time. It will run on 3 cylinders. The noise will go when the faulty one is disconnected (I doubt this will be the fault though)

Hi Koalar, thank you for your reply.

I will unplug and check the injectors tonight, hopefully that is the issue!

If it did turn out to be tappets, how would I go about dealing with it?

Before jumping straight in you need to confirm the problem.

The best way for lifters is with the rocker/cam cover off. Turn the engine over by hand. They should all sit the same when the lobe isn't pushing on them and you shouldn't able to easily push them down.


A fault one will collapse when pushed.You can clean them. Plenty of YouTube videos. I have done this. It works but they are still not as good as new ones but much better than replacing 16.

my girlfriends 100hp does it to some degree. its better with a few revs so the oil pressure gets up. cant beat reliable old shim and bucket

doing regular oil changes reduces the chance of them sticking up. some models can be cured by running an additive through the system, but i would only use that an old high miler on its last legs personally.

Most hydraulic lifters have the very same oil they filled with when the engine was first started. When the main oil is changed the lifter's oil is trapped until it's stripped down. It sounds bad, but the trapped oil see's little oxygen and gets no contamination from exhaust gasses etc so it should do fine.

Eventually it has to be stripped and cleaned, but then shimmed buckets have to be reset to adjust for valve seat wear so likely to be similar costs either way.

DaveMcT said:

Eventually it has to be stripped and cleaned, but then shimmed buckets have to be reset to adjust for valve seat wear so likely to be similar costs either way.

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most shim and bucket setups can be done in place without removing the cams. plus its only when the miles get right up that they need reshimming due to noise whereas most hydraulic tappets are shot earlier than that. also, shims are generally cheaper than replacement hydraulic lifters

Shimmed valves will go quiet when the valve seats wear. New thinner shims are fitted to restore the correct clearances. If left for too long they will hold a valve open and escaping hot gas will burn the seat. They are usually used on high revving engines that where hydraulic lifters can pump up and hold the valves open.

Depending on the engine design, the shims can be easy as pie to change or an absolute pig of a job.