Having a ticking sound now coming from my engine. Oil level is fine.

It appears only after I start driving the car, usually about 5 minutes, maybe a little less.

Anyways here's a link to a sound recording, sorry for the crappy audio but it was the only thing I have here at work that I could use. It's hard to tell but you can here this "ticking" in the background faintly.

http://www.youconvertit.com/Download/DT.aspx?T=8769722e-8617-4df8-8a94-10041a6cbeae

Absent of any obvious signs of wiped out lifter or lobe, check your bolts on your exhaust manifolds. If it is loose bolts you can thank Johnrr for the diagnosis......

exhaust leak. If it were a cam wiped out it would be all the time.

On another website they said it might be one of my lifters going or lack or oil pressure that is causing this. Thoughts?

It could be a collasped lifter....

If it gets louder as the motor and oil warms up, it could be the start of a failed rod bearing.

Forgot to add:

The noise starts and doesn't get louder BUT when I put my foot on the gas, the ticking speeds up, when I take my foot off the gas it slows back to normal.

bad lifter or ex leak & they can b remarkably similar. Might spray something safe all around the ex manifolds/pipes & see if you hit it & might pull the valve covers & press straight down on the pushrod end of each rocker arm w a wooden hammer handle & see if it partly quiets any of them. Both tests while idling

is there a trick to looking for an exhaust leak besides looking for black marks?

a 3/4" short hose to the ear and all around the exhast flage,like a stethascope.

few drops of oil or small amount of diesel fuel into the carb so it creates some smoke.

Hook up your shop vacuum cleaner up so the hose is connected to the dsicharge port. Insert the hose into the exhaust pipe and tape up to minimize leakage. If dual exhaust, blank off or cover the other exhaust pipe to help build pressure. Turn on the vacuum and start checking for air leaks. Naturally use this method when the exhaust system is cool.
Ron

If it's an older car, don't forget to listen at the choke stove gaskets.

Ok here's the latest. Took it to a couple different shops including back to my cousins shop and each one told me they couldn't actually hear this ticking noise.

So I sat around the cousin's shop and with the head mechnic we started listening around. There is a noise though coming from underneath the car and sounds like it's coming from about dead center of the car about two feet or so from behind the rear wheels. You can hear it from both sides. I'll try to get a sound recording tomorrow as I'm at work until midnight.

My instant thought was something wrong with the tranny (thats roughly the location of where the engine and tranny hook up is it not) but the mechnic checked it out as best he could without me actually taking it to a transmission shop to tear down and look over.

My exhaust has checked out twice from what they've looked into. The car is running near perfectly although tuning it to that sweet spot is being a pain. The idle is near dead steady (no real fluctuations that I see) and the car shifts at around 3000rpm (accord to my new tach that my cousin installed).

Now two things I've noticed about my tranny. I was told it had a stall converter or shift kit by the last owner but he didn't know exactly what (go figure). BUT the car has a decent "lurch" from first to second and second to third. Im not sure how to best describe it. The faster you are going when you hit these gear changes the less of the lurch but at slow speed it's noticeble. It's not a jerking motion but more of the car want to lurch forward.

Also maybe it's just me but if you carefully put on the gas it seems you can get the car up to about 1000rpm before the car actually starts moving.

I'm at a loss. I've dumped pretty much of all my savings into the car right now and I could be chasing ghosts in the machine with money until I'm forced to live out of it.