I took my valve cover off yesterday polished it and put back on. Today I went to drive it and the engine makes a ticking sound, it gets louder at higher rpms. Also when I let off the gas a 2000rpms or above it backfires. And there is hardly any pressure coming out of the exhaust. Checked compression on all cylinders and they are all at 150. Does any one have an idea what might be wrong. It ran great before.


Thanks in advance

 

Back the nuts off of the valve cover. You probably torqued them down too tight and rockers are hitting the valve cover. Typical mistake, I usually tighten my valve cover to be finger tight plus two full turns. It does 't have to be torqued down super tight.

 

Just did that, still having the same problem. Also there is blue smoke when I start the truck and rev it.

 

I would completely remove the valve cover and re-tighten it. The way those rubber washers on the valve cover are designed, they sometimes like to stick in place even though you loosen the nuts. Remember went you took the valve cover off? I bet it didn't just "pop" right off did it? It likely took some light prying, which isn't uncommon.

150psi isn't great, but isn't necessarily bad. You may be getting a little blow-by, but I'm assuming you weren't blowing blue smoke before you removed the valve cover? You may even be getting a low reading because your valves aren't completely closing due to the rockers hitting the valve cover. Try doing the compression test with the valve cover off - I bet your reading are higher. This could also cause the backfires and low pressure out of the exhaust because the exhaust could be leaving the head through the open intake valves that are hitting the valve cover.

Again, this valve cover thing isn't an uncommon issue and should resolve itself by removing and re-tightening it. Might want to check the cover and rockers for damage and check the valve lash.

 

Didn't fix anything, I also looked at vacuum lines, plugs and wires and everything seemed fine. It's weird how it started doing this all of a sudden. I guess if it's the motor, it will give me an excuse to finally v8 swap it.

 

did you re-lash the valves? See any damage on the rockers or valve cover when you took it off?

 

No and no.

 

Well, all 22R engines tend to have a tick, some worse than others; however, some are due to poorly lashed valves causing valve chatter (confused for the "tick") or the valve cover contact issue. I'd lash those valves - it would likely help solve your issues.

 

Turns out my header gasket blew out and was leaking. Easy and cheap fix.