Little bit of knocking from valve cover...(Noisy lifters fixed with new pushrods)

[jasonthomasfrance]

Howdy... I put the Summit cam, lifters, and double roller timing chain on the engine in Jan/Feb timeframe.

Well, the exhaust leak is fixed now... And I can here the lifters. I believe they're hydralic...

I've been told to tighten the bolts on the rocker arms? Anyone else have thoughts?

Lindel: Do you have lifter noise, I think my setup is almost the same as yours...

[ June 29, 2002, 06:06 PM: Message edited by: jasonthomasfrance ]

[porkchop]

I had some valve train noise as well after the summit cam install. You can not adjust the rocker arms by just tightening the bolt. I put in longer than stock pushrods and that took care of the problem. The part numbers on the push rods for the 360 and cheby 350 are the same. They come in different lengths take one out and take it to the store and match them up to the ones you need. Don't go to long or there can be a problem.

[jasonthomasfrance]

Porkchop: How much bigger did you go?

[porkchop]

An 1/8 of an inch or so. It wasn't much at all and it stopped the noise nicely.

[jasonthomasfrance]

Is that 1/8" over the stock pushrods, which are the same as the chebbie 350? Hmm... I wish I didn't have to take one out. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow...

[jasonthomasfrance]

HELP!!! I got the chevy 350 pushrods. No more lifter noise. Yeah! BUT, two of the rocker arms are loose on the driver's side. And it makes a little knocking noise.

Okay, maybe I should clarify. A knocking noise comes from the driver's side valve cover. I had a mechanic listen to it with head phones and a steel rod. He said it was coming from the first set of rockers, and from the last set.

I took the cover off and the 2nd rocker arm was loose. And the 6th or 5th rocker arm is loose too (can't quite remember). Well, they should all fit together with no "looseness" right? I shouldn't be able to wiggle the rocker arm back and forth? But the bolts are tightened down. So how do I fix my problem?

The mech said to shim them with a washer made from a beer can. But where do I put the washer? I tried just under the bolt on the loose rocker, but that didn't work. So I tried a thicker washer, no dice...

Any other ideas??!! Is the knocking really really bad? Will it cause excessive wear? What should I do??!!

[jasonthomasfrance]

Still need help... Okay the loose rocker arm was a dumb comment from me... I did a search and found some more info out. Turned the motor over a couple times to check positions and tightness...

Crazy_Jeepman has said in other posts knocking can be caused by low oil pressure, worn cam lobes, worn valve springs, etc... Well, I have a new cam and lifters. And now new pushrods. So... low oil pressure? I don't have my oil gauge hooked up, the plastic line sprung a leak...

*sigh* How terrible is this noise? It's not too loud. I should get a rod with headphones so I can listen to where the sound is coming from...

Any thoughts?

[porkchop]

Glade the longer pushrods work for you. I have never heard of the beer can washer technique. Maybe someone can enlighten us. I have a little vavle train noise also but it is nothing to worry about. I can wiggle a few of the rocker arms myself. I just took out my cam today to put back in the summit cam. So I will see what happens after the install. Did you torq all the arms down to the right specs?

[jasonthomasfrance]

Ah... Yes? Haha... 23lbs? or 32? I tightened like some others have saig, to the metal then 1/2-1/4 turn... I guess I won't worry too much about the noise.

[Oracle]

You guys beginning to worry me. [img]smile.gif[/img] These are hydraulic lifters, as a general principle, oil pressure should take up the slack in the drivetrain. If you've got noise, you've got something wrong. As you may have seen, I just rebuilt my oil pump on the advice of Michael. Best 14.00 and 30 minutes I ever spent. It's a piece of cake. Do that and eliminate that variable from the equation. On a cold morning after the 88 had set for a couple of days, I'd get a hint of valve train noise for a few seconds after I started up. Since the oil pump rebuild, nada. I rest a lot easier.

[Crazy_Jeepman]

If you have a rattle in the lifters on a STOCK never touched motor, chances are that the causes will be, #1poor oil pressure not keeping lifters pumped up, # 2 rockers, pushrods, lifters wore out. #3 Lifters sticking due to dirty oil. I am sure there could be other causes for rattling lifters. I would be careful useing longer push rods with out being sure you need them, you may have only a couple lifters rattleing for whatever reason, Longer push rods may very well correct this, however they may also prevent valves to close completely and cause more problems.

[jasonthomasfrance]

It's not stock. I've got a Summit Cam, double roller timing chain, hydralic lifters, and now lifters that are about 1/16th longer than stock.

Perhaps low oil pressure? I'll have to hook up the gauge today.

[Crazy_Jeepman]

Since you have new cam, lifters, pushrods, and still a rattle I would be looking for, low oil pressure, rocker arm and or rocker fulcrum being wore out. The only time you should need longer pushrods is if you have had the heads done. When valves are ground they sit in the head at different hights, so the machinests will even out the valves by grinding the valve stems at the same hight as the lowest Valve stem. (where rockers contact Valve) Then this will give the need for longer push rods. About the only time that comes to mind I would ever use them.

[ June 30, 2002, 07:29 AM: Message edited by: Crazy_Jeepman ]

[Oso]

Prior to my recent rebuild I had a serious valve train knock. It started out as a small amount of noise - not too worrisome. Over the period of about a year it developed quite nicely.

I checked everything I could without pulling the head. Arms, pushrods, springs, etc. Still did not stop it. One mechanic thought it was the cam so we put in a new one with lifters and timing chain assy. Still not it.

Common wisdom around here is that the 360 has a bad history with valve guides. Once the engine died from other causes, the autopsy report proved this to be true in this case.

This and the very shoddy work by the moron I had hired to do the work eventually caused the demise of the engine. His mistakes accelerated the destruction.

So just a simple little noise can be big problems later.

Moral? Even little noises should be taken care of properly and soon.

2nd moral? Some things are best left alone if it cannot be done correctly.

Heheh! Reconcile those two!

[jasonthomasfrance]

Morning!! I think I'm going to buy a rebuild kit for the oil pump from performanceamstyle.com (with h.p. spring). After doing searches on here for an oil pump rebuild it seems pretty straight forward. And I've had the bottom pump piece off before and had the gears hit me in the head [img]smile.gif[/img] so it should be fun!

I'll check the pressure before rebuilding. And Crazy_Jeepman: I read on one of the posts you use a copper line for the mech oil gauge. I'm going to use one too, since my plastice one sprung a leak...