1985 Honda NightHawk 650 Tick noise just started.

[Bam9307]

Good Afternoon All,

 

A few years back I helped a buddy, and bought a 1985 Honda Nighthawk 650 DOHC off of him. Had someone go over it, they replaced all fluids and most if not all gaskets. Ran great other than needed a new set of tires and brakes. Well shortly thereafter it sat for a few years with very little rides due to life happening. Well I finally was able to get back to it and ride and I find my fuel lines had rotted away (made for an interesting story after realizing it), well replaced the lines,  turned it on and started noticing a ticking noise coming from the #1 cylinder. It was really faint and intermittent, so took it as I hadn't heard it before. Well its become more pronounced, so figured I'd ask for experience before really hacking into it, plus, had a hard time finding a new head gasket, ( as I have been to the point where I needed to fix something, found out the basics and fixed it and, then realized I couldn't put it all back together because the seal broke too badly to reuse). So went through checking other possibilities before tearing into the motor and waiting on new gasket. Can't detect any exhaust leaks, though I admit I may have missed something, the plugs and wires are new so im not getting an arc pop (had a car do this to me, damn rabbits chewed on them), and from doing research my valves are supposed to have hydraulic valve lash adjusters, which I shouldn't have to do a Tappet check, but from other models, this is exactly the noise they were experiencing. Any thoughts or recommendations?

[Gixxus Christ!]

First: check if the plug is loose. 

These do have hydraulic valve adjusters but if some one skipped some oil changes and it sat a while, the oil passages could be plugged. You can try sea foam in the crank case, but if it Is a hydraulic adjuster issue you'll need to pull it out, clean it with kerosene and refill it with clean oil if memory serves from Honda service manual. I would recommend downloading one to guide you through the process. 

Exhaust leaks can be sneaky. Get a mechanic's stethoscope from hazard fraught and use it locate exactly where the tick is. Replacing a copper exhaust crush gasket is easier and cheaper than every other option. Rule of thumb for me is eliminate from the cheapest possible problem/fix first.