I have a 98 disco I that has a very light tick from the engine. I've tried to pinpoint the tick as close as I can, but can't really get a good feel for where it is. It sounds like it is in the camshaft area, but I notice the noise more when I am listening from the driver's side...so it may be from one of the lifters going up to the driver's side head.

Anyway, so far I've done an ATF flush and moved from 10W-30 to 10W-40 hoping that would help but I haven't heard a noticable difference. The previous owner ran regular I think, but I have been running premium since I got it about 6 months ago.

When I seafoamed, I saw some of the smoke bellowing out of the exhaust manifold gasket where the Y pipe and the manifold connects. Yesterday, I took the truck to a mechanic to see if he could find any exhaust leaks, but he said he couldn't find any. He didn't smoke the exhaust.

Tonight, I went to check my fluids (I do a couple times a week) and did so just by the light of my cell phone. After I checked the fluids, I started it up to see if anything has changed with the noise. Because it was dark, I noticed some faint light coming from the connections of a couple of my plug wires. It really wasn't a visible arc, more like a glow near the plug. These are new magnecor 8mm wires, only a couple of months old.

So my questions are:
Could the previous owner using regular gas be causing a constant spark knock or would that have gone away after I began using premium?

How can you tell a spark knock from a tappet or a rocker knock?

Should I take the truck to get the exhaust checked again and this time get it smoke checked?

If my plug wires are bad, could that possibly be contributing to my knock?

The hose from my valve cover to the intake plenum is bad too, could that be causing any issues?

 

I have the same problem and am hoping that someone will help out. I am going to do the seafoams injection cleaning and the ATF oil flush on the next oil change. I hope this will correct the issue.

P.S. I also put new magnecor 8mm wires and plug on about 10 months ago but this noise started about 5 months ago when the temp changed.

 

Your PCV hose being bad will not cause this.
Make sure your plug wires are seated correctly on the plugs. If they are arcing then that will cause a "ticking" noise.
You will not get spark knock at idle, the engine needs to be under load for that to happen.
If the knock sensor were bad yes you could have spark knock, but that sounds like a diesel when you are inside driving.
Right now it sounds like bad plug wires.

 

Would the truck throw a code if I had a bad knock sensor?

The plug wires are seated correctly. Do you think it is weird that the brand new wires would be bad?

Even if it were my wires, why would the noise sound like it is coming from the camshaft area?

Anyone ever made a return to roverconnection.com? Worried they might not replace my wires.

thanks fellas!

 

Plug wires will not cause an engine to knock. Do you have any codes?
You will most likely find either a lifter, rocker arm or rocker shaft as the problem.
If for some reason you have a arcing from a wire, I would check the connection, remove the wire and inspect it and if a burned spot is found, call the retailer you bought the wires from.

 

Arching plug wires can and will make a "ticking" or "tapping" sound, if you have multiple plug wires shorting out.
And remember that Rovers spark on every exhaust and compression stroke, so they spark twice for every four strokes of the piston.
Times that by however many bad plug wires you have and thats a hell of alot of noise.

 

orangeswarm said: "Because it was dark, I noticed some faint light coming from the connections of a couple of my plug wires. It really wasn't a visible arc, more like a glow near the plug."

wires are not seated right? it's arcing under the boot?

 

Pull the wire off, Carefully and inspect the boot and wire for a burn mark. Also, what about the fault codes I asked you about, have any?

 

No fault codes at all.

 

did you check the wires like Disco Mike said? were there any burns?