Hemi ticking

[Cottontail]

After I got done towing from home to Harlan (550 miles or so), I noticed a ticking in the Commander on cold start. It sounds like a baseball card in bike spokes. If I go about 30 seconds under acceleration, then back off, when I get back under acceleration the ticking is gone and won't come back for the duration of that use.

The ticking certainly seems to come from the passenger side, and will increase in tempo and sound with the increase in speed. It is definitely correspondent with the accelaration.

[Johnnie Walker]

exhaust leak? Lifter tick?

[Cottontail]

Would either of those options go away in 30-45 seconds of driving?

[Rob Mayercik]

When I had a crack in my XJ's exhaust manifold, it made that noise when cold, but it went away as it warmed up and the expansion of the metal closed up the gap.

[Jeepguy91]

The hemi in the wife's durango has a pretty good exhaust leak on passenger side. Can really hear it when its cold. Goes away after it starts to warm up. Maybe something to look at.

[1-tonxj]

I see this is a 4 year old post but the question has no answer so I'll post despite the age of the thread .The hemi typically cracks the exhaust manifold bolts from heat cycles as the block and exhaust manifold have different rates they cool down at causing different expansion and contraction rates causing the bolts to crack over time . The "hemi tick" is the leak/ crack exhaust manifold bolts as the engine heats the parts expand and it usually stops being so audible . To fix it you need to pull the manifold and replace the busted studs that can be easy or hard depending on if they cracked far enough out to reach with a tool and they come out if not you will be welding onto them to remove them . I've had the tick for years and I have broken studs on my passenger side exhaust manifold I'm just too lazy to pull it apart I waited 3 years to do the axle bushings ;-)