454 popping and ticking

[davidonmars]

Hey guys my friend had a 88 doral phazar with a 454 bravo 1. We were out on the lake when all of a sudden we hear an intermitten popping from the engine bay. Pop the hatch and the motor is ticking loud and every once in a while it pops.. We were messing around under there and cleaned out the spark arrestor as it was a bit dirty. Had it idling at the slip for a bit longer while I popped off the plug wires and put them back on to make sure they were good. Fired it up and it was acting the same. Gave it a few revs and bam silent and no more popping. Went out for a ride and my friend said it was 5mph slower then usual. Came back to the slip and it was ticking once again but no popping. Any ideas what I can check?

 

[picklenjim]

Re: 454 popping and ticking

Does it seem to be missing on a cylinder now? If he dropped 5mph then it probably is. Sounds to me like a valve train problem on a cylinder. Going to need to determine which cylinder it is and pull the valve cover on that side to inspect. You will need to put that cylinder in firing position to see if the rockers on that cylinder are still adjusted correctly. If you pull the plugs on the side the ticking is coming from and the engine IS missing usually the bad one will stand out from the others.

 

[grendelsniper]

Re: 454 popping and ticking

Could be a bad spark plug wire, when is the last time those have been changed? The ticking could be arcing from some ignition component via cap or wires, causin a missfire which gives you the popping from the engine, try a tune up and see if the problem is solved.