Re: 100% Proof that liners are moving at 'normal' operating temps & causing the tapping!
PT - Who is this guy in Louisville then? I'd be interested to speak to him as that is my location, and have obviously done the BBQ grill trick...
The best way to remove 03/04 liners is to put them on your grill... Think of the money you'd save by presenting a liner-less block, instead of them having to be machined out...
As JimmyJamz mentioned - if you have a "ticker" and pull the heads - look for the tell-tale grooves in the head gaskets. These grooves are not caused by detonation, K&N filters, or checking your oil pressure at cold, hot and telling DiscountMike what the numbers were. They are caused by the sharp top edge on the OE liners repeatedly hitting the firing rings.
Also, you don't have to have a consistent tick - mine was like a 1.5 cylinder diesel engine trapped inside a sweet running V8 (before i fitted the new top-hat block)... And "rythmic" is a good way to describe the noise I experienced. There was definately consistent "tick" and a ghost tick that seemed to move around, between the other cylinders.
The only damage I have seen was on "another forum" where someone had lost their compression on an engine that had been ticking for many thousands of miles. The liner had eventually punched through the firing ring, allowing a thin slither to come away from the gasket and get stuck in the valve, leaving the compression a little low. Not exactly a major fail.