Hey guys, I have a weird tick that I've been trying to take care of for a bit now. I changed the oil to synthetic, ran some injector/valve cleaner through it. Neither of those worked. Well, I have a week off of work so I decided to take the valve covers off to check my clearances, to see if it's a cam/lifter issue.

By the way: 06 350z manual rev up, with 104k miles.

I bought the Haynes manual for the G35/350z and it tells me the specs for the lifter/cams should be .012 and .013 for intake and exhaust, respectively.

I removed the driver side bank rocker cover to check my clearances, and this is what I came up with.

Piston 2: .012 for the intake cams, and .010 for the exhaust cams.

Piston 4: .010 for the intake cams, and .010 and .009 for the exhaust cams.

Piston 6: .010 all the way around.

I didn't take off the passenger side rocker cover, because it looks like a pain, and I know it's just going to give me relatively the same numbers.

Now, I can tell these are fairly bad, but how bad is it? Could it be causing my tick? Is this something I need to get addressed immediately? Can I ignore it for a while and live with the tick? What are the tolerances for the cams/lifters?

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

you sure its not just your injectors?

 

I guess it could be the injectors, I don't really see how they can tick though. I've compared the noise my car makes to other VQ's, and I don't hear it. If I do though, It's very faint(on other cars)

 

I have the same issue with my 03 (90k miles). Its driving me nuts. all I hear is that dam noise. Haven't looked into the problem yet but im sure its not my injectors. Subscribed to see if you get anything on it. Good luck!!

 

Cam followers won't last forever, and remember they are solid, not hydraulic. They will loosen up slightly in their bores over time, but it's nothing to worry about. The valve clearances are less than spec now because the valves will wear into the valve seats over time, which brings them up.