Ticking Noise In the Engine

So driving home last night I started to hear a ticking noise. This is the first time I've heard the noise. The car ticks all the time, but its louder when accelerating. I brought it to my local mechanic. He listened to it. He also used a stethoscope to listen to the engine. He said in different gears the sound seems to be coming from different places. He doesn't have much knowledge about these cars so he couldn't give me an answer as to what was causing the problem. I've done some reading on here and from what I can understand I may be looking at the lifter tick problem.

Now understand I paid for $650 for this car about a year ago. Since then I've had to spend over $1700 in repairs on this car including a transmission replacement. So I'm really not looking forward to spending another small fortune on my car.

well, if it is a light ticking it might just be your lifters. When was the last time you had an oil change? When I hear my engine tick I know its low on oil. If its too far gone it might need new lifters period. Out of curiosity...what else have you had to have done repair wise. We can give you an idea of what else to look out for...oh and the mileage on the car

167,xxx miles on the car.
At 155,xxx I had to replace the transmission with one that had 90,xxx miles.
At 164,xxx I replaced the torque converter.
I've also done some repairs to the front end. Ball joints, wheel bearing and tie rods.
As of right now its only been 2000 miles since my last oil change and my oil is okay I checked that first.
After talking with a friend I'm going to do a motor flush with good oil and a good filter. My question now is what grade oil would you guys recommend I use?

Well if it makes you feel any better, my 4g64 is a replacement motor and has 50,000 original miles on it. I've been running full synthetic w/energy release in it for a year now, and my lifters still tick every time the car is cold. I've heard a lot of 4g64's do this, I think it's pretty commonplace... someone correct me if I'm wrong

Same here, my car has 166,000 miles on it, this engine has ticked since it was new when cold, but after its warm it goes away, and if you rev it while it's ticking it goes away too. So I've concluded it's normal, so many other cars do it too with no consequence I've quit caring about it.

I've owned five of 7g (still have three that are road worthy) and every one of the the SOHC engines has ticked. The ticking becomes worse if I don't keep up on the oil changes or the oil level gets low. With that said, I'd suggest you watch your oil level and oil change intervals and then just drive her until the ticking becomes something more than a tick. Consider a motor flush but somethimes that will cause other problems and as such I generally don't recommend them. Consider running a quart of marvel mystery oil (at available at Walmart) in the engine for a day just before your next oil change to gently clean the lifters. If you decide to add the marvel mystery oild be sure to drain some oil from the car first as over filling the crankcase can cause problems too.

As you have already experienced, the auto trans is the weak link on these cars. If it goes out again, consider doing a 5-speed swap (tutorial on this webpage); meanwhile drive it and decide if it is a car you'd want to spend money on to keep it on the road. Most of the folks on this web site will tell you these are great cars either as a daily driver or as something to be moded for handling and performance (i.e., turbo, DOHC head swap, 5 speed, rear disc, etc) if that is your thing.

Well we did a motor flush with the Marvel's mystery oil. The ticking is quieter now, but its still there. For my car it doesn't tick when I first start the car. It doesn't tick till I put it into gear. I've also noticed that when the car is in neutral it seems to tick longer. I spoke to my uncle who was a mechanic. He said with the high miles I'm better off to just drive the car.

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Originally Posted by Lilyofthevalley

Well we did a motor flush with the Marvel's mystery oil. The ticking is quieter now, but its still there. For my car it doesn't tick when I first start the car. It doesn't tick till I put it into gear. I've also noticed that when the car is in neutral it seems to tick longer. I spoke to my uncle who was a mechanic. He said with the high miles I'm better off to just drive the car.

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The only way to get rid of it is to replace the lifters,but just keep an eye on the oil level and do oil changes at the recommended intervals.The lifter tick is common for our cars.

lifter tick is normal. if you want it gone you dont have to replace the lifters right away, you can try taking them out and cleaning them and to clean them you soak them in diesel fuel. if the car has no other issue besides ticking then just drive it. also what oil and weight do you use?

I used quakerstate 10w-30, cause thats what the computer at autozone said my car should run.
I have decided I'm going to run the car the way it is. Other than the ticking noise the car is running fine.

The ticking noise has become something worse, so now I need more help.
Here's the story. I was driving to work this morning. When I got on the interstate the car started to make louder vibration noises. Then all of sudden it sounded like something went and the check engine came on. I finished driving the 10 miles to work cause it was still running.
On my lunch brake I checked my oil. There is black sludge stuff in my clean oil and my reserve for my coolant has brown gunk in it. From what little I know of cars that sounds like a blown head gasket. I want to know what your guys opinions are and your recommendations. The car is currently 35 miles from my house and not starting. It seems like the battery is dead.