1998 Cav. engine makes noise when warm

Ready to pull my hair out :(
My car has been making this rapid ticking noise and it does not do it when I first take off in the morning, but by the time the engine warms up, it will start making that noise. I took it in...the water pump was changed because the tech thought that was the problem, and if it wasnt the prob. the water pump needed to be replaced because it was going out. Okay, no prob. did that. Noise still there. Took it back to the tech (I should mention this is an alright guy) and he worked on it for 4 hours trying to find the problem. Timing gears are good, belt tension good, took the valve cover off, everything good there. The noise is in the engine according to him as he listen with a stethescope (sp) but of course it is dark in there so he cant see he says LOL! Anyhow, we paid out $250.00 for him to "check" the car for what was wrong, he wanted another two hours and I said NO! I can not go broke looking, I rather go broke with a fix. So here are a couple things with the car, maybe related maybe not. It tends to overheat, especially in summer of course, I will be sitting waiting for fast food and notice the temp going up and up and I turn on the heater to get it to go down LOL. It does it in the winter also just not as much. The other thing is when I am stopped at a stop sign I notice it was shake a bit. Not a lot, but it does do it. I guess I am looking for things that may be the problem so I can research more, I came across a post and the guy had the same thing as my car and it ended up being a Knock Sensor Failure? What that is, no clue. But does it sound right for my problem? Any advice would truely be appreciated, the tech also told me he hoping that it is a bad oil pump? Would that make it do the noise when the engine is warm. i have no check engine light on and no oil light on. Its like the car is fine but its not :) Help? Thanks a bunch, you can email me also at
garjanjk@netnet.net

Janet

Any ideas? Anyone?

Does it sound like a valve/lifter tap ?? More noticeable when warmed up/hot ?? Just went through this with my 96 at 102K. It's the timing chain, guides actually. The chain guides are plastic and they wear away allowing the chain tension to slacken a bit. It's very noticeable when the engine is hot and at highway speeds.

Thank you so much for answering. We had the Timing gears checked and that was good. Is that the same thing as a timing chain?

Thanks in advance

Janet :)

Does it sound like a valve/lifter tap ?? More noticeable when warmed up/hot ?? Just went through this with my 96 at 102K. It's the timing chain, guides actually. The chain guides are plastic and they wear away allowing the chain tension to slacken a bit. It's very noticeable when the engine is hot and at highway speeds.

The chain travels around the gears in the same way a belt travels around the a/c,alternator pulleys..