engine noise

[1Bad99Gt]

well i have a 99 gt with a few bolt on stuff nothing major , but i have a full k&n air system , with a 75mm throttle body , off road h-pipe with Ultra flow mufflers and 2.5 pipes , with an SCT programmer.

now with that said ever since i bought the car there has been a small pinging under the hood , sounds to be from the passanger side of the car, its weird it sounds like a lifter sometimes but not really sure , it start doing it at and rpm's mostly over 2k when you get to that leveling out speed , if you hold it just right it pings like crazy , BUT just give it a little gas or barely let up on it and it will go away , its only there when you are driving and on the throttle , you can be at any load and let off the gas and it wont do it, its driving me crazy , but i have been back to my SCT dealer many of times and trying different tunes and all are the same , any help would be great, just really wont to get it fixxed so i can sell the car.

thanks , jeff

[bobtsgt]

is it more of a pinging or a ticking like lifter tick or injector tick? mabey you have some sort of exhaust leak on that side. as you raise or lower the RPMs the exhaust could be swirling around the leak causing it not to escape until it slows down. I noticed you said passenger side and you have a differnt H pipe which makes me think possible exahust leak. The gasket could be leaking where the pipe meets the header flange. Does the ping sound like its coming from down low, behind the valve covers, from the intake itself?

[1Bad99Gt]

its defently not an exhaust leak , but i dont know its probably more like a ticking but i would think if it was a lift like one person told me it was it would do it even under a load with no throttle but it only does it only throttle,

[black90lx]

mine is doing the same thing. mine does for a split second if you start it when it is cold,when you hold the rpms at or above 2k and when i push the clutch in to shift when it is above 2k it does it. it doesnt show any oil pressure when it cold unless you rev it up a littlebit but when it is warmed up it stays above half way. but i think that is just the oil sending unit it has been doing it for about 6 months. mine only makes the noise when there isnt a load on the motor

[bobtsgt]

might not be a bad idea to pull the valve cover and check it out. pass. side is easier to pull then the drivers side. might have to pull the rockers and lifters out and check for excessive wear.

[Blackout]

I had a 2000 engine that did the same thing. Come to find out that the engine under a load did not get enough oil up to the lifters. They will sound like a bag a marbles until the car sits and idles for a few minutes. I did a complete teardown of my engine after it finally spun the rod bearings and found that I had sludge and a weak oil pump(wore out gears). My suggestion is to check your oil pressure and also be ready to tear down the engine to clean it out. Don't run it hard with it ticking like that or you will ruin your cam bearings.

[2-8-1]

I know I'm new, but Ive found that on both Trans Am's and my Mustang that I have worked on, when we added higher flowing exhaust you could hear valve train noise much better, its possible that it has always made this sound, and you can just now hear it due to the exhaust. Be cautious and check the left head and oil pressure.