if he spun this thing to 2 grand there should be oil in the up top.......even @ idle, the engine was never primed prior to starting ? are the oil lines all stock Merc, if so with the inverted flair ends I dont think you can reverse them........you need to trace out all the lines and make sure.

yeah a slight tick, but loud enough I can hear it from drivers seat without engine cover

engine was primed with valve covers on, all lines are stock mercury lines and oil set up. I don't believe it ticks at a higher RPM..

did you prime the engine prior to lashing the valves to get the lifters full of oil

bolt down rocker arms.

ya, I know how they work......good luck

I wasn't being a smart ass lol, I just assumed you thought I had adjustable rockers. How do you set the last on a bolt down factory rocker? Or do I just loosen all of them and prime engine? If that would be the process no I didn't. I installed engine and then primed engine.

Seeing we're on the topic can I ask for clarification on a similar observation ?
Stock 502MPI about 265hours Merc 25/40 oil since new. 40psi oil pressure max .
When running if you peep into the fill tube the rocker that is visible is always dry . I've never removed the rocker covers when running though.
Is this really normal ?
On an old Ford 351 that I used to have within seconds of startup you could see oil pissing everywhere all over the push rods and rockers.

LoL its funny you reference a Ford. I'm a Ford guy and can say that any SBF I have ever had if you looked in the valve covers there was always puddles of oil. From what I am gathering from the BBC stuff is that, it just oils enough and rolls back down into the head. not a 100% sure though.

Yep , that's what I'd like to have cleared up , once and for all. If I had a problem I'm sure that something serious would have gone wrong by now as it's been like this since new. But to be honest it always sounds like it has excessive valve train noise , like it's lacking oil.
By comparison that old 351 even when it was near 20 years old was so quiet the suck of the carb was the loudest thing coming from the engine. I'll always miss that little motor .