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I just got my exhaust put on my M38 and with the engine being a lot quieter now I can hear a ticking noise that sounds like its toward the front of the engine on the valve side. It does get faster as rpms go up but not louder. Do these engines usually have a valve tick to them? Even before I took the jeep apart it seems that it has always done this. The engine doesnt smoke and runs really well. Oil pressure is good. Im wondering if my valves may be out of adjustment. I have been lucky so far as the engine is concerened. I havent had to touch it save a carb and fuel pump

Make sure your fan belts are not to tight.

Yes a tick is very common and when it persists after the engine has warmed up it's time to re-adjust the valves. If you've never adjusted solid lifters before you should get someone who has and go through it once with them. It's not rocket science but you could consider it an art form to know just where TDC is and knowing exactly what a slight resistance means with the feeler gage.

I think I am going to have a mechanic familiar with flathead engines listen to it. I think its the valves ticking but I keep second guessing myself that it could be a rod knocking. But wouldnt a rod knok be louder on the passenger side of the engine? Would the engine even run well with a rod knocking? Ive never had an engine with solid lifters in it before so I dont really know how to determine the noise and how to adjust them. It looks like it could be a bear to get to. Do you have to remove the manifold to get the valves adjusted?

Rods KNOCK (Loud deep bang) and valves tick (light tick, tick, tick on just under the lefter cover. You can do them with the exhaust manifold in place but it is easier with it removed. The tick is about the same weather you have hydraulic or solid lifters.

I would first get a broom handel and cut it down about two feet, then put one end on the head over each cylender and the other to your ear and see if you can hear which one it is if any.

To add an answer again, I used to think the 'tick' was normal as every jeep I ever came across in Europe had the 'tick' my worn M38 has a deffinate 'tick'. My new M201 engine doesn't.
A very well rebuilt engine runs almost silently, the French engines that are on the market now (often said to be M38 engines because they have an almost identicle water-resistant distributor and plug leads and plugs and genny etc) have been built at the French tax payers expense where profit was not a consideration.
These run with a loverly wurrrrrrrrrre sound and with the bonnet closed you can hardly tell they are runnning.
So your engine doesn't HAVE to have a 'tick'.
From experience once they are worn they are a pig to set and getting rid of the tick is in my experience impossible, I'm sure somebody can do it.... but not me. Time to take them and the lifters out and hand them to somebody with a quality griding wheel and experience.
All the best,
Dave

One of our mechanics here at the dealership used to be in the army and still fools around with engines quite a bit. Im going to bring the jeep up here in a few weeks to paint the rest of the jeep and parts since I have no heater at home. He is going to listen to it to make sure it is a valve and show me how to adjust them. If they are too worn to adjust there is an engine rebuilder down the street that does a lot of engine work and I can have him go through the valves redone. Of course if I go that far we might as well pull the bottom pan too and check everything else! (Which could turn a valve job into a major overhaul for some reason thats the way my luck goes!)

Ryan,
I'll cross my fingers but I don't think you have a serious problem. If the engine runs well and has the good compressions you listed then it's just the necessary periodic adjustment that's needed.

By the way Wes, I ordered some seat covers from Mona Roth the other day and she sure talked highly of you! She said that if you were ever at a function I was attending to make sure and listen to all of your stories!!

Uh-Oh