I have a 1955 331 that makes what I think is a lifter noise when it's warm. The car had a solid lifter cam in it that was a little big for the street so I bought a hydraulic cam, lifters, adjustable push rods and matched springs from hot heads about two years ago. I can't remember the box color. The heads were rebuilt also. The bottom end had the 30 over stamps on the pistons and I could still see honing marks in the cylinders so I pulled a main off and the bearings looked good so I left the bottom end alone. I read the search posts for hemi lifter noise and I thought it was the rockers. I pulled out the rocker end caps and cleaned everything out with a bottle type brush and marvel oil and a can of spray sea foam. I thought they were clean but the lifter noise remains. I tried 10w30,15w40,20w50 no change. I now have a 5 gallon bucket of oil in the garage. I ran it with no valve covers on to watch the oil flow and the passenger side doesn't have the same amount of oil as the driver side, but it is getting oil. I called Bob from hot heads and he said I have a few dirty lifters? I push on the rockers when it's running and the noise doesn't change. Any other Ideas?
There have been complaints about HH's generic white box lifters. If it actually is the lifters making the noise, then the oiling of the rockers is a different problem. Could be Chinese lifters having a problem. Did you use oil with zinc? Or an additive? As far as unequal oiling of the rockers, each bank is oiled from different cam bearings. One bearing might be installed slightly off, reducing oiling or the passage in the block might not have been fully cleaned. Is there any slack in the adj push rods?
I use oil with zinc diesel truck oil. The adjustable push rods were set at 0 lash with one full turn on install of a dry lifter (not filled with oil). I thought about the cam bearing placement I didn't change the bearings when installing the cam. The motor ran good before I fixed it
Diesel oil: Supposedly the new CJ oil still has zinc & the car SM/SN doesn't, but I've seen oil marked SM/CJ so someone is lying about zinc content in one or the other..
Are these engines prone to valve guide wear? With the engine running you could try to GENTLY put a slight side-load against the valve and spring assembly. Using a big screwdriver, or maybe even a ratchet or breaker bar, try to GENTLY pry VERY SLIGHTLY against the valve spring retainer, in a couple different directions if possible. Doing this will sometimes reduce or change a valve train noise if there's too much valve stem clearance. Might at least narrow down your search to a single cylinder. Did I mention to do this GENTLY, for obvious reasons?
do you have the oil passages on the rocker shaft towers lined up correctly on the lower oil flow side ? they will bolt on and look the same but oiler holes will be off .
He's getting some oil so the stands would be in the right place, if you're talking about coming from the block.
As I was saying, I'm not sure that the new CJ oil has zinc, much less like the old CI oil had. Have you checked with the engine off if you have any slack/gap on the push rods?
Have you milled the heads or decked the block? This could change the angle the push rods sit. Also going from 5/16 to 3/8 pushrods you could be contacting the block and getting a tick sound. I had to open up my push rod holes slightly for clearance. Just another thing you could check.
0 + 1 is a decent start. The pushrods use 32tpi so you end up with about 0.032" preload. I usually suggest 0.050-0.060 " but if all lifters have the same then all should operate the same. If you had solids prior then of course you would have had uniform rocker 'music'. Has this current 'noise' been there since installing the cam or is it a recent development? Noise at idle or at what rpm? Was the cam a regrind or a new core? Have you inspected the pushrod tips for wear? Have you checked to verify the pre-load? Have you been making 'adjustment' to the same pushrods multiple times to maintain the preload? How much variation in oil pressure cold to warm? .
"The motor ran good before I fixed it" Oh man, that sounds familiar. Replace the word "motor" with about whatever and you can name any number of my projects. Wish you luck getting it fixed.
I know that when you switch from a stock Hydraulic cam you are supposed to change the relief valve on the oil pump. to lessen the flow to the lifters. Maybe you now need to go back to the stock setup!
Had the same problem with mine, only in reverse. Had a hydraulic cam with new Comp Cams lifters and had the same noise you had. With the help of Bob at HH, I tried all the tricks mentioned here. I even tried as much a 2 turns pre-load on the lifters. Turned out to be worn lifter bores. I pulled the intake, valley cover and magneto and ran the oil pump with a drill. The cylinders with the noise were bypassing the oil at the lifters to the point of squirting oil out in line with the pushrods as far as the bottom of the heads. HH said that was a common problem on engines with so many miles. Said the only cure was bronze liners in the bores. I couldn't afford that, so I went solid. Now I have uniform solid cam "music" and love it. Hope this was help--Bert
The lifter bore is something that is never mentioned, but needs to be watched for, as some of these engines were released from the factory with oversized lifters.
...what?????????? I have seen reference to this before and I call bullshit. The oil pump feeds the entire engine, not just selected parts at selected times.... The ONLY reason to restrict oil to the lifters if for old timey roller cam setups and that is a whole different subject. Good call Tom, the other subject that 'we' often overlook is undersized lifters that sometime show up in white boxes so it might be useful for the OP to pull and measure them if the issue persists and other remedies are not found. .
Hh does not get their lifters from china. They are made here in the good old usa. I know this for a fact. The white box means nothing
lifter bores get neglected, they do wear also all lifters aren't the same dia have had some that were too tight not enough clearance.
Hard to tell if it was there the first time I ran it it had open headers no exhaust Noise is at idle and higher rpm but harder to hear Cam was a new core Push rods were new didn't inspect only few miles on them Adjusted them once only a few we're adjusted not the noisy ones Oil pressure doesn't change when warm according to the gauge.