I have put a 4.25 stroke forged rotating assembly into a 30 over 454. When I received the block from the machine shop, they had painted the lifter valley with a grey graphite paint. ( they said this would aid in oil return). When I assembled the engine, I had trouble putting several of the lifters in the bores. Assuming the paint would quickly wear off shortly after initial fire up, I took no steps in cleaning the paint from t he bores. Unfortunately the engine is now complete and I have what appears to be a top end tick after 1500 RPM. In your experience, should I allow the engine to wear itself in or am I looking at a top end tear down to remove the paint from the bores?
Keywords:engine building
I do not believe the paint needs to be removed nor is it causing the tick noise(given that you did not have to beat them in with a sledge hammer).
Depending if you have installed Solid or Hydraulic lifters will make a huge difference here. If solid lifters were used, it will tick almost no matter what you do.
Hydraulic lifters, if set correctly, do not tick unless they are collapsed or out of oil.
Couple of questions for you:
1) Did you use solid or hydraulic lifters?
2) Are the lifters new or used?
3) Do you hear the tick on all cylinders just on one side of the engine?
4) How long have you run the engine so far?
5) Did you readjust your lifters/valves hot? or just cold or both?
6) What method did you use to set your valves/lifters?
I used high performance “anti pump-up) lifters and they were new. I did have to tap 3 i think into the bores as they wouldnt go in just with the pressure of my fingers.At low rpm (1500-1800) they sound like all of them (noise very very close together), but once the rpm reaches 1900 and up you start to hear the individual tics.(increadably hard to explain a sound)The tics get further appart and louder as the moter increases in rpm. Cant really tell where the sound is coming from but definately sounds top end.I have maybe put on 10 kms so far with allot of that sitting in the driveway stressing out. lol I am going to reset all the valves again ,do u recomend doing them cold or hot.?I use the method laid out in my haynes manual of removing the lash on half then turning the moter 360 and doing the rest. Hope u can help.
Thanx Darren Betker
You state anti-pump to my question “Did you use solid or hydraulic lifters?”
Sounds like you are using solid lifters, if so you must set them with a feeler gauge to the specified setting. And they will always tick, ALWAYS!
If these are anti-pump hydraulics(not heard of this before) then I recommend setting them hot and with the engine running. And I recommend 1/4 turn instead of 3/4 turn as described in the book. Why, you ask? This will allow the engine to rev quicker….trade secret.
taping the lifters in is no worry, the High spring pressure will keep them nice and tight once you get your valves readjusted.
This is just part of the process, wouldn’t stress about it at all. Your not hurting anything with it ticking while it is running, so do not let that worry you. And getting your timing set will be easier once you get the valve set proper.
If these are stock heads, rockers, and cam(betting it isn’t)you can just tighten all the rocker nuts down till it is showing 4 threads on top.
Hey thanx allot. I am indeed using a antipumpup lifter. Newest high-teck gaget. Ecentually it is a poor mans solid lifter. They put the contact point further down in the lifter caseing to effectivly put more pressure on the internal spring. This is supposed to eliminate valve float as a solid lifter does. Any way , for the first time i have used fordged full floating pin pistons and they tell me the sound i hear is the pistons ecentually slapping until they get up to temp and expand, and sure enough the sound goes away when they warm up so thanx 4 your help. If this is true its just a sound i am going to have to live with.
Thanx again Darren
Comments are closed.