Tloren

I have a 2001 xj, that ticks when accelerating, the tick is faster depending on how fast I accelerate, and the tick never goes away even when the engine is up to temp. What are some areas I should look for?

lawsoncl

Louder underneath? Gets louder if you hold the brake and hit the gas? Cracked exhaust manifold or leaking exhaust manifold gasket would be my first guess.

tjwalker

Need to do a bit of sleuthing. Are you sure it is coming from the engine? Top of engine or bottom? Do you have the ticking even at idle or just when accelerating? Is it a ticking or is it a pinging? Pinging could indicate some pre-detonation due to some engine carbon deposits.

A "mechanics stethoscope" and some (very carefully) poking around can be very helpful with your search as it has a probe that magnifies the noise and makes it easier to identify root cause. Start with the top end of the engine, it could be a bit of lifter noise but as Lawson mentioned, an exhaust leak can make noise similar to this as well.

How many miles are on this engine and what is the history of routine maintenance (primarily oil changes) on it? Once you isolate the location of the noise a bit more, we might be of more help.

Good luck and keep us updated!

Tloren

from what I can tell it sounds like it is coming from the top of the engine, there is no ticking while at idle, it starts as I accelerate and once I stay at a speed it goes away until I accelerate again, sounds like more of a tick than a ping to me.


there are around 80k miles on the engine with regular oil changes of valvoline 10w30 oil.

poni

+1 to what Lawson said, exhaust manifold crack is classic for ticking sound under load, it’s quieter when less load so maybe you don’t hear it at other times. Fits with a very common issue of cracked manifolds on the 4.0. Should be pretty easy to identify with a close look and a bright light. You can feel around the welds for cracks (when cold!!!) if you can’t see some spots.

if it is cracked, good practice to change out your motor mounts/trans mount at the same time as when they go it puts strain on the manifold.

Tloren

This is a section of the exaust manifold correct? If so how much would it be to replace/fix?

Dieselian

It might be worth checking if it's the distributor, I have a similar problem with my xj ('99). I haven't gotten the time to replace it so I can't say with 100% certainty that its the source but its worth a look considering its a simple fix compared to the exhaust manifold. And because your description sounds almost exactly like mine, with the ticking coming from the back passenger end of the engine bay.