Tick noise when warm after bent pushrod change

[dave04da]

Hi everyone, new here I have a 1999 firehawk T/A M6 with ls6 intake headers w/cats. I recently had a tick noise coming from the rt side head. I pulled covers and found 3 bent pushrods all on the intake valves on cyc 2,6,8. I replaced the push rods and torqued to 22ft/lbs with tdc on 1 then rotating crank 360. I started the car and it is quiet until it warms up, then the tick comes back. I have just changed the oil and am running penzoil 10w30 synthetic. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[SMWS6TA]

Was there any metal in the old oil? A shimmer? If you still have the oil filter cut it half and check for metal flakes.

How did you bend the push rods? Over rev?

Did you pull the head to check the lifters?

It's possible with bent push rods that the lifters have collapsed, the valves have bent as well or a valve guide is out of tolerance.


I'm kinda in the same boat but mine is a fresh new build. I'm having to pull my head.


Now if you over rev'd it you may have other issues further down in the block.

[dave04da]

I think I found the problem. I knew it was in the #6 cylinder by using a mechanics stethoscope, so I pulled the rockers and the pushrods on 6 and found that one of the new pushrods I put in (#6 intake) was about .010 shorter than the rest. So I put in a old one that looked good and wasn't bent and the noise is gone. So much for quality control. Thanks for the help.