ok i tried finding what i was looking for through the search button but everything came back as a lifter tick and i dont think i have a lifter tick. ok heres the story. i bought my 96 gst about a year ago and the engine did tick alittle a friend said it was no biggie i could just change the lifters but it isnt that important. so i drove the car for like a year and just got use to the ticking. it wasnt bad just ticked when i first turned the car on and drove for like the first five minutes then it went away. recently about a month ago i noticed when i was sitting in my car waiting for it to warm up in the cold weather here that every now and then i could feel the car like jump or skip a beat. it was weird i dont know how to better explain it but it just felt like when i sat there once in a while the car just vibrated slightly and the rpms moves maybe 50 rpms up or down hardly noticable. dont know if that has anything to do with what is wrong but thats what happened. then one day i went out to start my car to warm it up, started the car and went inside for like 10 minutes when i came back my car was idleing at the zero line. the car was still running and shaking slightly. i gave it some gas and thats where the terriable terriable terriable ticking began. everytime i gave it gas the car ticked crazy loud and it never goes away i let the car run for 30 min and tried again but the tick was still there. then i noticed when i give it gas the tachometer doesnt really read right. i can feel that i was revving the car to like 6000 but it only showed 2500. i kept revving the car trying to figure out what is giong on then all of a sudden the tach jumped from 3000 to 6500. the car ran like normal. it was as if there was something stuck and when i revved it it came lose and everything was back to normal. i thought it was just cause it was so cold out. i went to the gas station turned the car off and started it back up and i worked fine. but when i went to get back onthe street i heard this loud noise almost like something HUGE fell out from under my car. then again the car was idling at zero shaking slightly terriable ticking and the tachometer didnt work right. i did a compression test and the numbers came back good 140 142 140 138. i got under the hood and was pulling the trottle to try to find the ticking and i noticed it doesnt sound like it was coming from the head. and i figured that it cant be a bent valve or stuck lifter since the compression test was good. the ticking seemed like it was coming from the left bottom of the motor. i still have the stock t25 turbo so i thought maybe it went bad so i took off the intake and messed witht the turbo. no shaft play and when i started it you could see the turbo spun fine and sucked in air well. another weird thing is when i had the intake off i didnt have the MAF hooked up and the three lines that go into the intake hooked up. the car ran the same when the intake was on and when it was off. usually when ever i unplugged the maf the car shaked crazy and bogged out eventually. well now my car sits in my driveway. friedns are telling me to change the lifters but i dont think that will help at all just put a hole in my wallet. some one please please please help. sorry about the life story but just wanted to get every detail in there. O and please help im being forced to drive a del sol until i can fix this!!!!!!!!