ticking sound?!?!?

on sunday me and a couple of friends cruised on the intestate to a car show and cruised back and when i got back i noticed a ticking sound coming from wat seems to be one of the exhaust ports on my 390, i could be wrong so i checked it and too the gasket off and and it looked fine so wat i did is put some high temp silicone around the ports on theexhaust manifold and put the gasket on it and i bolted it back up and its still doin it i think i may need the exhaust manifold to be trued up or maybe it may be the valve, but it doesnt miss at all and runs fine and i checked the fuel pump so it isnt that either so could i have possibly floated a valve or is it a exahust leak? remember its a moderately fast ticking sound coming from that exahust port? so anyone know wat it could be?

This may sound sill, but have you checked all around for loos accessories/brackets etc. near that area?
To check for good valve sealing, run a compression check on the engine. If your suspect cylinder is in the same area as the others, it is not likely a valve or rings.
There is a dye you can get that will illuminate cracks. Usually with exhaust manifolds you can see a crack with your unassisted eyes. Is there any smell of exhaust fumes in that area?
Also pull the valve cover on that bank and make sure everything is still like it should be under there.
The ticking can also be a hydraulic lifter gone bad.
Without more info, that is about the best I can come up with. There are others that frequent these forums that have far greater experience. Hopefully, they may be able to help you further. Good Luck Friend.

- David

Left side manifold on the 390 in my Monterey had about a 3/32nd warp to it. 2 minutes on the belt sander had it trued up & no more leaks/ticking.