Lifter ticking. Will it damage other parts?

[Kbkiller]

The rockers should have a little to no play depending on where the lifter is on the cam lobe . If you have the valve covers off you can turn the balancer bolt clockwise to rotate the motor about a quarter turn or so each time and check for major play in the rockers. If you have major play more then likely a lifter is stuck and if that's the case it's just a matter of time until the lifter grenades and that's no fun! I have had that happen twice. If the push rod is clogged it's starving the rocker of oil and that could be the ticking. The rocker would be dry and a blue color from metal on metal and that's no Bueno either

 

[Wulfaz]

The rockers should have a little to no play depending on where the lifter is on the cam lobe . If you have the valve covers off you can turn the balancer bolt clockwise to rotate the motor about a quarter turn or so each time and check for major play in the rockers. If you have major play more then likely a lifter is stuck and if that's the case it's just a matter of time until the lifter grenades and that's no fun! I have had that happen twice. If the push rod is clogged it's starving the rocker of oil and that could be the ticking. The rocker would be dry and a blue color from metal on metal and that's no Bueno either

Here is a picture. I cleaned out the push rods and added a little oil. For now the ticking is gone. Time will tell. I did not rotate the motor to check for play. There wasn't any play in the rockers without rotating the motor but I'm not sure if that means anything.

 

[Kbkiller]

There isn't any obvious hot spots on your rockers that I can see. These motors are notorious for lifter noise and for the most part it's just annoying. When it sounds like a monkey is in there beating around with a wrench then you have issues.

 

[Wulfaz]

There isn't any obvious hot spots on your rockers that I can see. These motors are notorious for lifter noise and for the most part it's just annoying. When it sounds like a monkey is in there beating around with a wrench then you have issues.

Right now it's just annoying. I also worry that I will wait too long and it will destroy the engine. But as of now it's not giving me any codes. You also can't feel it in throttle. There is no misfire or anything. Just ticking noise off and on. (Loud enough that we can here it in the front seats). I would do a motor flush but hear that's bad to do in AFM engines.

 

[JaxSam]

Does the ticking you hear occur at a certain speed? If so high or low speed? Our 07 Yukon with the 5.3 flex fuel just had a issue similar to this. It was making a ticking noise around 25 mph and below when you let off the accelerator. You would here it faintly at higher speeds around 40 sometimes also. We only seemed to here it when we let off the accelerator.

 

[Wulfaz]

Does the ticking you hear occur at a certain speed? If so high or low speed? Our 07 Yukon with the 5.3 flex fuel just had a issue similar to this. It was making a ticking noise around 25 mph and below when you let off the accelerator. You would here it faintly at higher speeds around 40 sometimes also. We only seemed to here it when we let off the accelerator.

No. Once it starts it does it at any speed.

 

[STORMIN08]

Probably not what anyone would normally recommend, but in our 07 the afm was said to be causing the issue.

Aside from that, i believe GM has signifigantly smaller orifices in the pre 12 5.3 engines lifters...they gum up easier. Typically at about 3500 miles on our oil is starts the tick, never low on oil unless it is towing, but i have been using hotshots secret oil treatment for the 6.0 powerstoke engines. It is supposed to break down the varnish, i add it when the tick starts, and by the 500 miles, it is gone and the oil is changed at the 5000 mile mark.