How to reduce rocker noise?? 324 Olds

My 55 olds is running stong still with the original 324 in it, but still has some rocker noise going on. I have given it multiple oil changes hoping it would clear out the motor some, but still has the noise. Mostly on the passenger side. Anybody have an idea on what I should try next? I have not opened the engine up at all to see whats inside. I also am noticing a little oil is getting pushed out of the breather tube. My first guess is I have some plugged oil galleys?? Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated, Thanks.

 

mabye try replacing half a quart of oil with atf, it mite help clean it out i did it on my pontiac motor and it helped. but i all so wanna see what others say too

 

Intersting enough this subject is addressed in the 55 Olds motor manual....it says that after adjusting the rockers as well as can be done ,and the noise persists, that the mechanic should tell the customer that this noise is common on these motors...!

However I have heard of switching rocker shafts from side to side may eliminate the noise (it changes the wear pattern)

 

I have the same issue. I think ( not 100% sure) mine is a noisy lifter.

when I got the car a few years ago I did some cleaning up of the engine. One job was to pull the rockers and flush them out and just go through them. As the drivers side was noisy, turned out with running the car and valve cover off that the rockers werent oiling the valves properly.

problem was I busted a rocker stand on putting the drivers side one back on. any way I bought a remanufactured set from Rocker specialties. I put the brand new set on the drivers side and job was done.

So when the passenger side started to make a racket. I tried pulling the valve cover off and poked a piece of wire down the drain back holes and then as they were clear decided to put the new rocker assembly I had left on.

well that was a disaster! it was louder than the old ones!!

Maybe swapping from one side to the other might fix it. I probably should pull the Passenger side off and clean it out again encase its just blocked.

But is it the rockers? or is it a noisy lifter? I also pulled my lifters to pieces the same time I did the rockers and they were really bad. To do the lifters though is an intake off job. not a huge job but big enough when the cars is your daily driver.

I have heard they can be a little noisy.

 

Olds were well known for lifter noise. A common fix was to pull the lifter, take them apart, and insert a 1/4" washer inside to increase the spring pressure. Never had to do that with mine, as it was quite before the rebuild, and after. If the engine isn't rebuilt, maybe new lifters are needed. Couldn't hurt to try the washer thing, though.

 

Best thing to do is clean all the oil holes in shaft and rocker arms.To clean the shaft there is a small freeze plug on each end remove one and clean out..This may help it get oil and quite it some all least it will be oiled.Keep in order do half shaft at a time.The shaft wears and may want new ones.

 

In the fiftys I had a '49 rocket 88. Every now and again a lifter would hang up, and I'd dump spme Bardal in it. That's what Bardal is made for. The lifter noise would go away and all woud be good for a while. With todays lifters, filters, and oils the use for Bardal has kind of passed. But may help you.

 

many yrs ago I thought I knew about olds. Turns out it was a cracked piston, sounded the same as lifters.

 

No oil treatment out there will make up for worn shafts, rockers, or pushrods. All of us who grew up with sbcs got spoiled by the fact that they all had adjustable rocker arms and, if a lifter or two started making noise, another 1/4 or 1/2 turn on the nut usually shut them up. Have you given the rocker assemblies a look and checked for wear?

 

A common problem is a split pedestal, this is the one that has the dowel pin, iv seen lots of these with hairline cracks which decreases top end oiling. Another thing I did was to resurface the all of the pedestals on a surface stone with 1000 grit paper.

Pete-

 

Is it safe to assume that a 1959 371 would have the same valvetrain arrangement?

My 1959 371 has noisy valvetrain also - not bad, but annoying just the same...

 

Same basic design, but '59-'64 rockers won't interchange with the '58 and earlier design. Your engine has 8 LH and 8 RH rocker arms, while the earlier engines used 16 rockers that were all the same and interchangable.

 

The early Olds engines were noted for poor oiling up to the rockers. If you've ruled out everything else and you're sure it's the rockers,here's a tip that was passed on to me: You will need to disassemble the rocker assembly. There are two oil feed holes in the shaft for each rocker. Hold the shaft like you're looking down the barrel of a gun with one hole at 6 o'clock and the other at 8 0'clock. There should already be a groove from 6 to eight . Continue a slight goove from 8 up to 12 o'clock for each rocker. It will feed more oil to your rockers and reduce wear. Now of course inspect everything for wear. If the shafts or rockers are worn they can be reconditioned at Rocker Arm Specialists. Hope this helps. I've done this on both of my Olds engines and it works fine.


Art