not the type that carry lyme disease.
HELP!
I drove to work today and my car ran fine.
when i leave work.
there is this awful tapping sound coming from the drivers side
of the engine.
what's going on
i change her oil
i wash and wax
i've also posted this in the longest thread.
but i know most people don't post there.
please HELP

 

I don't think washing or waxing will have anything to do with this one. Where at on the actual engine is it? You said driver's side, but upper or lower?

 

upper

 

How many miles? It may be a loose rocker.

 

85,000

 

Hold a garden hose (1 to 2 feet in length) to the valve cover and to your ear. This is just to make sure that that's where the problem noise is. I'm not big into valvetrain problems especially on a pushrod engine. The only problem I've had was on my SOHC 4.6 GT. It was a loose rocker due to a valve that would stick open a bit. This may very well be the same problem you're having. Does it sound like it'son the interior of the engine, or exterior?

 

it sounds like it's under the valve cover
i went out a little bit ago and it seemed that after i shut the car off there was a
pause then a tick
it almost seemed like whatever it was dropped

 

do i need to run some injector cleaner thru.
i've been a bit leary about the place i've been getting gas from
i've gone back to sunoco

 

It sounds to me like a valve is getting hung up just a little bit. You said you heard the noise again right after you cut the engine off. To me that sounds like the valve spring finally had time to "unhang" the valve. Maybe some other folks will chime in with their opinion.

 

yeah i just ran it a liitle bit ago,
it sounded pretty good.
slight tick.
i revved it a little bit.
the noise came back
but not as loud as before
originally, i would drive down the street an people looked
at me like wow, nice car, too bad it sounds like crap.