I suspect one of my valves is sticky. usually in cold weather or after a long drive a clicking noise will turn up. When the clicking is present my acceleration is weaker as well. sometime the clicking goes away while im driving and sometimes it doesnt. I usually use seafoam to clean out the engine and it seems to help but i would like to remove the problem not alleviate the symptoms.

Is it actually a valve issue or something else?

Help would be great guys, thanks!

2002 V6 camaro

 

Hard to tell without actually hearing it. But you could adjust them. I believe its 3/4 turn past zero lash, check in your service manual to make sure. BTW what is your oil pressure?

 

Oil pressure is fine. right around 60. I actually had to replace the oil pressure switch a week ago. The clicking is directly related to the rpms, the higher the rpms the faster the clicking, what confuses me the most is that the clicking comes and goes, it hasnt been clicking for at least 3 months and just started up again

 

The rocker arms on your 3.8 aren't "adjustable", they ride on a pivot block that's torqued down to the head. You could have a bad lifter that isn't holding pressure, which would cause a valve to not open fully or not at all, resulting in a crummy running engine, like you're getting.

 

wouldn't a problem like this be consistent though? and im assuming that replacing a lifter is not an easy fix?

 

Not necessarily, and no it's not if by easy you mean quick fix.
Are you using synthetic oil or conventional? I've had a noisy lifter clear up after changing to synthetic, so have others. Synthetic helps clean out gunked up oil deposits, it's worth a shot.

 

Im currently using conventional, What brand of sythetic would you suggest?

 

I like Mobil 1. But as you'll probably find out, everybody has their own favorite.

 

lifter finally went bad on me. intake lifter on middle piston passenger side collapsed. took the pushrod with it too but that was it thankfully.