lifter noise

[moparbob75]

i just got done putting a 383 in my road runner freshly built, has a new hughes whiplash cam in it. we broke it in this morning and suddenly sounded like a lifter tap, there is no miss and the motor sounds REALLY good with that cam except for noise. could it be a collapsed lifter or what?

 

[65DODGE]

did you use any break in additive with zinc or oil with high amount of zinc in it to prevent wiping out a cam lobe?

 

[moparbob75]

yes used brad penn break in oil

 

[moparbob75]

im hopin its not a flat lobe wouldnt engine miss if that was it?

 

[63RedFury]

Hughes cam good luck.

 

[condor74]

It would eventually miss but at first it would just make noise. I had a cam go flat on my 383 and it actually wore through the bottom of the lifter and then I lost oil pressure. All that being said what kind of cam did you use? Was it a hydralic, solid lifter or roller cam? What kind of rocker arms are you running? Are you sure it is valve noise? I have seen people mistake a loose flex plate or other noises for valve train noises...Good luck and keep us posted as to what you find.

 

[condor74]

I just looked up the cam you have and see it is a Hydrolic flat tappet cam....still What rocker arm set up are you running?

 

[moparbob75]

stock rocker arms and pushrods, has anybody had any luck with the whiplash cams?

 

[moparbob75]

this is what i got 383 bored 30 over stock style flat top pistons the trw ones 452 heads from aerohead with the bigger valves performer rpm intake stock hp exhaust and edelbrock 750 manual choke and that cam. was wanting a cam with good idle and low power and torque but a noticable idle tried 509 cam i think was too much didnt like way it idled

 

[condor74]

if you wanted you could take a video with sound of the tapping noise and put it on youtube post a link and we could listen and maybe help that way too. just a thought.

 

[MarPar]

good idea...may help

 

[moparbob75]

i took valve cover off no marks there, gonna let it idle tomorrow and maybe get a better look, well i would post it on you tube if knew how im computer dumb lol

 

[Cranky]

Pull the dip stick after running it and take a very close look at the oil on it in good light.....

 

[HEMI-ITIS]

While you have the valve covers off,try to check the valve lash if you can.If it's a hydrolic there should not be any real clearance.Start at the front of one bank,rotate engine untill the intake valve is fully open and feel the exhaust rocker,is it tight?Rotate again and fell the intake,is it tight,will it move around at all??Check all of them and let us know whutcha feel:sleepy2:

 

[wannadrag]

Or change the oil and filter and cut the top and bottom off the used filter and roll it out.You will tell right away if something is bad.

 

[condor74]

I would run it with the valve covers off one at a time. While it is idling you can carefully put some pressure on the rocker arm towards the push rod and it may quiet it down or at least help you isolate it.

The only thing that scares me about it is a long time ago i built a 273 dodge with a solid cam and it ran great but it always had a little tap that sounded like a lifter tap. I swapped cams to a hydrolic cam still had the tap..I then used the 273 adjustable rocker arms with the hydrolic cam adjusted all the lash plus a half turn out of every one. it still had the tap...I could not locate it for the life of me. Bad news was about 20k miles later the tap got louder and louder until it spun a rod bearing. Obviously I messed something up on assembly but I just figured the tap was my early warning..I thought it was top end so I never even considered the bottom end. Oh and my oil pressure was great until the day it died.

 

[Meep-Meep]

Did you verify if you have the correct lifter pre load? Using the stock valve train the push rods need to be checked for proper length, especially if the heads have been done.

 

[HitIt]

Did you verify if you have the correct lifter pre load? Using the stock valve train the push rods need to be checked for proper length, especially if the heads have been done.

If the heads were milled flat it would cause the rocker preload to increase not decrease since the lifter to rocker distance is actually shortened up.

My bet is a bad lifter or one that hasn't pumped up properly. I'd go one by one as described above and see if any pushrods are loose. If you find one, pump it manually with the pushrod or long screwdriver while pouring oil on it. Start it up, if the noise goes away and then comes back you have a failed lifter. If the noise goes away it probably just had an initial problem. My motor did that too.

Here is a sequence to make the check of each pushrod go faster:

Position Intake Exhaust
TDC #1 firing set #2 #8
Rotate 90 degree set #1 #4
Rotate 90 degree more, set #8 #3
Rotate 90 degree more, set #4 #6
Rotate 90 degree more, set #3 #5
Rotate 90 degree more, set #6 #7
Rotate 90 degree more, set #5 #2
Rotate 90 degree more, set #7 #1

 

[moparbob75]

i started car up this morn while cold it was about 30 outside and no noise, it didnt start til after i drove it to town and warmed up. im thinkin maybe a heavier weight oil? it just has straight SAAE30 break in oil

 

[moparbob75]

the car ran really good drove it about 6 miles and was strong on low end and was smooth goin down road. oil pressure is 80 psi cold after warm up about 20 psi in gear