I have a 350 vortec with an edelbrock performer rpm and carburator, now the poor thing have developed a noisy ticking sound that you can hear both from the inside and outside of the car. very very noisy. It started last week in the morning when I started up the car. At first I ignored it thinking it will go away but it wont. Once you drvive for about ten kilometers it will quite down a bit but as soon as I switch on the engine after it rested for ten minites it will resume again so loud as if starting the engine for the first time in two days. :( The noisy can be heard from bothside of the engine. I have check converter bolts, re adjusted valves but to no avail. No I believe that the noise is originating from the lifter valley. I am now thinking of pulling the intake but how can I tell if one lifter is the culprit. Any ideas before I pull the intake will be more than welcome.
Sorry for the long testament. Looking forward for your ideas. Thaning you in advance.

If you have access to a dial indicator you could pull the valve covers set the indicator up on each rocker arm and turn the motor over by hand. That's how I found mine. If it's wiped bad enough you can spot it just by looking at the springs while you turn it over. Is it causing a miss yet? If so just spray some water on each individual header pipe. the bad cylinder will take a while for the water to evaporate. Good luck.......

I'm hoping that it's not a lifter but an exhaust leak. Try looking for that first before tearing the engine apart.

Pull your vavle covers off and run the motor, you'll see if you have a lobe gone or it one of your rockers were just misadjusted.

When all others are rocking full swing and one is only traveling half as far as the rest, you'll know. Put some rags around, its a little messy, but this works.

OK Gents, been off line for days as i was Trying out all the tricks you suggested to me. So far I have rmoved the valve covers and the noise disappeared when I re adjusted the vrockers on the left bank. Went away almost half a day long ang in the evening when I staretd engine again it came back again as ever, will quiten a bit if drive it for about ten kiolmeters but not entirely. I now believe that one of the valves or cam follwers on the left bank is the guilty one. However I still dont know how to spot a dead lifter. what signs should I look for suppose I tear down into the intake valve valley. I do not have a macro meter as suggested and have gone around workshops looking to borrow one but no luck. One other thing that I noticed is that the left bank has engine oil that drips only when engine running. Nothing messy about the oils. Is that a sign of a dying oil pump? It only became a bit messy f I revv the engine to about 3000RPM. All rockers looks to receive only a small stream of oil when engine idling. Oil gadge show very good oil pressusure but now I am kind of worried by them amount of oil I see in the left bank. Is that how vortec engines oil their components? And how many litters does a 350 stamped oil pan take? thanks again for your help.

OK Gents, been off line for days as i was Trying out all the tricks you suggested to me. So far I have rmoved the valve covers and the noise disappeared when I re adjusted the vrockers on the left bank. Went away almost half a day long ang in the evening when I staretd engine again it came back again as ever, will quiten a bit if drive it for about ten kiolmeters but not entirely. I now believe that one of the valves or cam follwers on the left bank is the guilty one.

Sounds like you found it... if you adjusted the rocker to the correct lash and the lash opened-up that quick you're there. It is either a lobe in process of being wiped due to a failed roller, a push-rod that is slowly bending... or a rocker stud that is pulling out.

Try to spin the push-rod on that lifter... if it is bending you won't be able to spin it with it binding a bit. And if you look down the shaft as you spin... you will notice it "wobbling" if it is bent.

If it is a rocker stud pulling out... you should be able to look at the base of the stud and see that it is pulling out. Compare it to the others around it... not an easy fix... but not fatal either.

Now for the ugly one... if the lobe on the cam is going away there will be metal in the oil. When my solid roller gave up.... there was a ton of curly shavings in the pan and scattered throughout the motor. If the lifter is bad... you wanna fix it quick... otherwise you will catch hell getting the lifter out of it's bore from the top. And it will trash your oil pump. Just makes a general mess of things:(

Let us know what you find... and hoping it is a bent pushrod for ya. That would be the easy one to fix;)