I've been hearing a faint ticking noise from my engine bay for the past week or so, before I noticed the noise I had taken it into a local shop for an inspection. It turned out that my car had original spark plugs with 114k miles, original spark plug wires, a valve cover gasket leak, old timing belt, squeaky idler pulley, and a timing cover gasket leak. I've now replaced the spark plugs with some ngk v power spark plugs, as well as some ngk wires, and a dorman idler pulley. I torqued the spark plugs to 14 ft pds, and gapped to .44 or maybe .044 (don't remember, just know it was the correct spec I found online), but with no anti seize or lubricant since I was too lazy to make a 5th trip to autozone that day. Complete novice here with my first car, so the spark plugs were the first repair that I had ever done to a car. I just hope that's it's nothing too serious. Extra info about the sound: the ticking is equivalent to the engine speed, and can only be heard when the hood is popped. My car runs completely fine with no abnormalities, but I just want to do as much preventative maintainance as my little hands can reach.
I posted a video on YouTube so I can really show what's going on https://youtu.be/a8X2Zg1TG1I Thank you!

 

The 1UZFE does sometimes require a valve adjustment from time to time. It doesn't sound like something you should be worried too much about TBH.

 

I was gonna immediately reply that the engine needed new lifters, as that was the case on the engine in my Chevy Avalanche after 13 years and 200,000 miles. However, I realized our engines don't have lifters. Maybe valve adjustment?

 

I saw another post for a guy who had a Tacoma, he said that the noise goes away around 3k rpms so I tried that today, and the noise just went away. He apparently had a loose spark plug that was bringing oil into the spark plug hole, but he also had a bad valve cover gasket, which I do as well. I'm gonna check all my plugs torque when I have some free time so I'll gt back to yall if it works.

 

just curious, how much would a valve adjustment cost usually?

 

Yes, the 07-13 Chevy 5.3 are known for lifter issues. It is due to the design of their V8-V4 fuel economy shutoff feature.
I wouldnt know exactly, but its a lengthy process, so probably well over a grand

 

oof, well that's definitely not happening anytime soon with my 9.5/hour salary. Would a valve in job be more or less a preventative maintained kinda thing?

 

That is sort of a normal sound on the UZ but it being louder than usual is not as normal, on the 2UZ that usually means the exhaust header has a crack or leaky gasket over time, I would check for exhaust leaks before the cat especially if it is louder when first started and quiter after a short drive as they exhaust will expand and the noise gets quieter.
As that other person mentioned, an ignition issue would also sound like a tick, an d the coils on these cars are pretty common to fail so are you sure it is running the same as before? are your idle rpm's alot lower?
That could be a sign of a bad coil or another ignition component.

unless you have been skipping oil changes you shouldn't need to do a valve adjustment, it is not an easy job on this engine as the cams have to come out at least once to perform the adjustment as it is a shim over bucket design.
You could measure the valve clearances without all the disassembly though to see if it is needed, but no one really does that on these engines the shims don't usually wear significantly unless there was another issue or low oil level situation.
Not saying it can't go out of adjustment on the valves, but usually it is a symptom of a larger issue happening.
If I had to guess I would still say it is an exhaust leak and you are just hearing your valves louder than before, or there is an ignition issue.

Adjusting the valves on a small block/big block or LS is a walk in the park compared to what you have to do on the toyota v8. I think most people would replace the engine first
The last toyota engine I have worked on to use a rocker design like the Chevy with the easy valve adjustment was a 22R or 22RE. They are bulletproof but they don't make a whole lot of power.

 

I know we're going way off topic, but I did not buy the engine with the AFM. I just didn't like the idea of the tech, and was glad I didn't. I miss the Avalanche, but just really didn't need it anymore. Maybe I'll get a LX470.

 

I don't think there's a Crack in the manifold or anything, I've checked for the sound after driving the car for 15 or so minutes and the noise is the same as it is during a cold start.