noise under valve cover
 

Ok Motorheads Need some Help,
Engine 540 cid carbed motor,hydraulic roller cam, roller rockers, Patriot performance Aluminum Heads with Inconel Ex valves, bob madera custom cam.

Motor has about 225 hrs of trouble free time on it. Approx 625hp.

The problem:
Motor feels like it is on 7 cylinders at idle, and has a definite noise under the stbd side valve cover. Noise is like a hammer hitting something very quickly.

What I have done:
Pulled stbd side valve cover and inspected all rocker arms. Everything looked good. Inspected all pushrods, all good. Reset all rocker arms and tested and no better.

I am not an expert and am looking for suggestions.

thanks in advance,

Flying Tomato

how did the valve springs look,you might have a broken one.

Is the noise at 1/2 engine RPM or faster?

could be a collapsed lifter. How did you set the valve lash? Are all of the adjusting nuts the same amount of turns down. All of the intakes should be the same and all of the exhaust rocker nuts should be the same.

Check the valve springs for a broken one.

Press down on the push rod side of the rocker arm to see how easy the lifter can get pushed down. May need to roll the motor over to get the lifter on the base circle of the cam first though.

Also pull the plugs out and check them.

Oil look ok? No metal ?

(Motor feels like it is on 7 cylinders at idle), does it run like it's on 7 cylinders? Other than a broken valve spring or collapsed lifter, if it runs like a tractor then it could easily be a head gasket.

Throwing this out as no ears or eyes or hands on your motor. I have seen and this will fool a lot of people. Exhaust manifold gasket leak(s) (blown exhaust manifold gasket). and or a spark plug boot torn - spark arcing / jumping off bottom side of the header or exhaust manifold.

have no idea how many others have seen this but at one time we use to see a lot of HP 500 carb apps and those Gil / Mercruiser manifolds would warp over time and blow the exhaust manifold gasket out. A lot of times it sounded like a hammering valve train noise.

Here is the tip on how to find exhaust leaks and or blown exhaust manifold gaskets. If you have a carb app especially. Go ahead - run motor a fast idle and dump fogging oil down the carb - the smoke from the fogging oil will pour out your exhaust system leaks and or blown exhaust manifold gasket leak(s). If you have an EFI make the soup mix up in the remote gas tank with gas and a lot of 2 stroke motor oil and run the engine on that mix / fuel at fast idle. The same will happen here as will.

Next if it is spark related banging off whatever run the engine in the dark and look for spark jumping if no sight of spark arcing then spray your spark plug boots and wires in very dim lite with a windex bottle. .

next or beforehand if your valve covers are off - use a remote starter or someone at the key and crank the engine over to watch your valve train action to see if you possibly can see and or hear anything out of place in that area. Pull your lanyard or pull your coil wire off at the coil before cranking.

next - a damn good tool is a real Doctors stethoscope - I can not tell you how many times I have FOUND the exact noise problem part by using a real docs stethoscope alone - from pulley bearing noise to crank noise to damn vacuum leaks to valve train noise and so on.

^^^^^^ Added to my post above my mind thinks faster than I can ever type. So maybe a reread.

I sure wouldn't run it any more till the issue is fixed, if you drop a valve you will have more than a ticking noise to deal with.

found the problem

Please share what you found for our curiosity and other people looking for help to similar problems?

found the problem
 

The bar on the lifter became detached and then the roller lifter looks like it turned sideways on the cam. Chewed up the lobe. Hopefully, I caught it before any major damage has occurred.

If anyone was wondering, the retro fit roller lifters were made by Lunati.

Well that would definitely cause your problem. You should be able to change cam & lifters, flush & clean out the pan by changing oil and filter. maybe even a couple of times with cheap oil and it should be ok as long as your oil pressure hasn't changed. However if you are pulling the motor, I would take it apart, hot tank it and start off fresh. Good luck with the repairs!

Flying Tomato, what brand block are you running?

Mine is just the GM standard gen 6 block.

It's a gm gen 5.

The rocker arm wasn't loose?

lifter will soak up .040-.060" of lobe wear before it starts to loosen

I would check the lifter bore carefully with a pin gauge to make sure it didn't get out of round. If the lifter turned it had to create immense side loading. You may end up having to put a bushing in if this is the case. I wouldn't just throw a cam and lifters/ oil change in it and call it done make sure you check the bore.

Agree about the condition of the lifer bore as to what BB said. I would think with the valve covers off and hand turning over the motor or cranking over at the ignition, a problem would have been noticeable that something was amiss in that valve train area. Just asking or did you just decide to pull the intake off and keep digging ?

I forgot to add. I would cut open your oil filter and see how much metal is in there for an inspection as well. Also new oil pump ???

I was concerned about the lifter coming out of the block and was relieved today when I was able to slide it out with absolutely no problem. The roller was rounded off on all sharp corners, but nothing was bent really bad. The oil pan has some very small metal debris in it. I have not cut the oil filter yet. I am sure that I had no change in oil pressure. I inspected the 2 cylinders closest to the failure and cannot see any scoring.

I will try to post some pics tomorrow. I really want some oppinions on if I need to hot tank or not.

Thanks to all.

FT

Tomato I'd be more worried about what caused the problem and the condition of the lifter bore then cleaning the block out. Oil filters do there job very well.

wow, If the lift bore checks good, I think you might have dodged a bullet. I agree with what everyone is saying, but it is sounding like you caught it just in time before major damage occurred.

some pics
 

Just wondering if anyone has ever seen this before. Spoke to Bob Madera yesterday and he said that he has seen the exact same thing happen before if using cast lifters, which is what I believe I have.

how do you insert pics?????????

You have to host them somewhere first.