possible bent valve?
 

Today I put some seafoam in my gas tank, and about 40 miles later i pulled over at a convenient spot to start sucking it through the brake booster hose. after about 3 seconds of sucking and the engine stuttering, I heard a CLUNK noise and it stalled out. when I started it back up I heard this ticking noise.

It sounded like a bent valve, but started and idled fine so I drove the smoke out from the seafoam. if there was any power loss or bogging it was so minimal I couldnt really notice.

When I got home, I tried the "tail pipe paper" test, and there was no suction, which would lead me to believe its not a bent valve. I tried unplugging each injector one at a time and the ticking didnt stop at any point. no CEL, misfire, or noticeable black smoke.

I will do a compression test and valve adjustment tomorrow. This is a sound clip I uploaded. the ticking is a bit louder in the video than in real life for some reason. any ideas?

d16y8 ticking - YouTube

adjusted valves, swapped spark plugs, pulled each plug wire, and then pulled every combination of 2 injectors in case i had 2 simultaneous bad valves or bearings. also inspected the rocker arms and topped off oil. no luck with any of it. if it was a rod bearing or a valve, cutting the fuel and spark to the cylinder(s) with the problem should have stopped the ticking right?

any help would be appreciated, otherwise my si wheels will be going on a 98 Escort I found for 900 dollars.

For 900 dollars, you could swap a head onto it and be fine...

You'd probably have about 650 left over to have fun with.

^ i would do that

sorry to hear that noise tho and sorry i have no real help, but def doesnt sound good and that is acknowledging that you said it isnt as bad in person

I hope that it really is in the head though, compression is fine. im worried its a rod bearing.

hows the oil look?

oil was pretty dark, i was gonna change it soon. i didnt see any milkiness though.

IDK but would a engine stetho tell you if it's from down low? It sounds more like head noise than internal from that clip. Do you think the SF went in too fast?

[QUOTE=MaximusFunk;777535]adjusted valves, swapped spark plugs, pulled each plug wire, and then pulled every combination of 2 injectors in case i had 2 simultaneous bad valves or bearings. also inspected the rocker arms and topped off oil. no luck with any of it. if it was a rod bearing or a valve, cutting the fuel and spark to the cylinder(s) with the problem should have stopped the ticking right?

any help would be appreciated, otherwise my si wheels will be going on a 98 Escort I found for 900 dollars.[/QUOTE

sounds like a valve lifter. if the sound is a knock that would be bearings.
compression test will not show a bearing issue.

I cant here the video clip because im at work. But most of the time a rod knock will get louder during deacceleration. The reason is there is really no pressure on the piston. When you are accelerating there is more pressure becasue of the combustion.
Does the tick/knock get louder when you deaccelerate?