Got an engine tick. Gets faster with throttle and is not super loud or "knocking" Sounds like its coming from middle of engine but slightly to the right of the valve cover. Seen some info to suggest either rocker arm, valve, or crank noise any way to id whther its the rocker arm or valve beofre I go ahead and replace the rocker arms?

YIJ,
JCCherokee

 

Welcome to CF.
First thing I would do is look inside the valve cover with a light and see how clean it is or isn't. A sludge build up could be causing the noise your hearing.

 

went ahead and did valve medic to no avail. Gonna pull the valve cover regardless (needs new gasket) Thanks for the quick response.

 

Let us know what it looks like in there. Never heard of valve medic. Most here use MM (Marvel Mystery Oil) replacing one of the six quarts with a quart of it. Does work.

 

thanks. Will post back. May be a dumb question, but any chance it could be an exhaust manifold leak?

 

Sure could. XJ's are known for cracking at the tube collector. Especially those with weak engine and trans mounts.

 

I had a pretty audible tick coming from the area you describe. I replaced the pushrods and rockers. They were worn. The noise quieted down significantly but it's still there, only lower down and I suspect the lifter pockets for the pushrods are worn like they were in the original rockers. It's got 247,000 miles on those original lifters so I'll probably pop the head and replace them here soon. Sounds like a thing to do for grins, anyway.

 

A flexi joint on the exhaust down pipe would have probably solved the cracking issue too.

 

check your distributor shaft for side to side play

 

Check the flex plate bolts. Sound locations can be tricky.