Symptom guide · Glass Box Diagnostics
A noise that tracks RPM can be a hydraulic lifter ticking, an exhaust-manifold leak (a sharp tick that vanishes as the metal swells hot), a loose heat shield, detonation pinging under acceleration, or — the rare one — rod knock, a deep thud that grows with load, not speed. Three of those five do not involve the inside of your engine. They all get quoted like the fourth one does.
“Sounds like bottom end — four and a half grand for a long block,” quoted off a noise nobody chased with a stethoscope. The opposite mistake is worse: pouring in a stop-tick additive while detonation quietly cooks a piston for months.
Typical guess-and-swap cost: $4,000–$6,000 (engine work) for faults that are usually a manifold gasket, a corrected oil service, or a $15 bracket
Stethoscope across the cam carriers to find which bank and cylinder ticks; the noise correlated against RPM, load, and temperature; mechanical oil-pressure checked against spec; knock-retard data on the scanner. The pattern identifies the source — the instruments prove it before anyone says the word “engine.”
We come to you — Canyon Lake, San Antonio & Austin. Written report with root cause — see a sample.