tic tac kind of noise coming from 172 engine?

I've noticed a bizarre kind of noise on tickover.. I can only describe it as a tick tac kind of noise, admitadley I haven't got much in the way of sound proofing so you might not normally hear it sitting in the car..

..does anyone have any idea's?

injectors ? tappets ?? what oil are you using ?

Mine used to do this was told it was normal, hydrolic tappets or something

that's okay then :) although I did notice it went away when I depressed the clutch so it's probably not the engine to my relief :)

Have a listen around the dephaser pulley as they have a habbit of breaking

Variable valve timing...

My 172s engine is quite loud. A few people have heard suggesting the dephaser pulley.

I could change it all but really can't be bothered til I pull the whole lot out for um, my car :D

If the dephaser is noisy, it normally makes a very loud noise on first start up from cold and only lasts for around 5 seconds.... in actual fact, it is not the dephaser but the solenoid valve that contols it that is the fault, in extreme cases the battery will go flat overnight as it sometimes takes a feed from the inj. comp.
Hope this helps.

yeah mine has a noise dephaser/solenoid thing.. as you hover around the 1800rpm mark you can here it sounding like rattly tappets but soon goes once it's engaged.. assuming it engages :)