Random popping sound coming from engine bay
 

There is a popping/snapping sound coming from the engine at idle only. This is the second time this occured, the first was slightly different as i only heard it out of the exhaust, (post about that), but in this case it's only coming from the engine bay. The same symptoms occured this time except it didn't throw any codes. The car performs kinda rough, and it could be placebo but it feels slightly underpowered. I scanned the car and it's not throwing any codes. There's always a constant ticking sound coming from the driver side valve cover, probably valve tap which I'm going to look into fixing as soon as it warms up. Could the popping and valve tap be related? The other occurrence went away when I let the car cool down so I'm going to see if that does the trick this time but I want to narrow this down so it doesn't happen again. Any thoughts?

Post some video if you can! It's hard to diagnose an audible issue through a web forum. Even if it's a crappy cell phone vid, it'd be better than nothing.

i had the same thing happen and i couldnt figure it out. turned out being bent push rods. i would take it apart and check before you keep running it. i ended up tearing a hole in my head, breaking a lifter tray and wiping out 2 lobes on my cam

How many miles on the engine and when was the last time you went over the rockers?

134000 miles, had the car a little over a year, never checked the rockers, I know, big mistake .Sound came back today when the car had been running for awile. I've concluded it only occurs when the car has been at operating temps for awile, meaning something is getting hot, expanding, and causeing this, or it could be when it goes into closed loop. I took a video ill post it after I get back from class. The sound seems to be coming from the same area as the valve tap but its so high pitched I'm not completely certain. O and btw it is definately lower on performance, I have to stay in gear longer or it hesitates a bit. And it shakes more than normal.