Valve train noise.

[yellow2kgt]

A little background.. I have a 93LX with a low mile rebuilt shortblock. I added a set of rebuilt GT40 heads (comp springs, valve job, etc,) Explorer intake, B303 cam, and new FMS roller lifters. When I installed the stock rockers I put each valve on the base circle and was able to reach 20 ft/lbs at 3/4 turn past zero lash. Once the engine warms up I have a loud ticking sound from the top end. I am 99% positive it is not an exhaust leak. The car runs strong but once it gets up to temp the tick comes back. I pulled the valve covers and I do not notice anything. No witness marks on the VCs or anything. The rockers are still torqued correctly. I did notice that on a few rockers I can easily wiggle them around. Any ideas? I was hoping that I would see something blatantly wrong when I removed the VCs. However, everything looks good. It would be nice if I could get this issue resolved with one more try.

 

[phutch11]

My experience has been that rocker arm to valve cover contact often leaves no witness marks. If you have anything on the VC that you think the rocker arm might hit, I'd grind it down.

I have a set of FRPP valve covers are they are the biggest POS part I've ever bought. Not only does the fill tube leak like a sieve, but there were probably 15-20 casting bosses on the inside of each valve cover. I had a similar ticking sound with no witness marks; but 2 hours with a die grinder helped solve it (also had an exhaust leak).

Good luck...

 

[93lxtwin]

Can you isolate which side the noise is coming from? I used to have a 66 stang with the same issue. Now I did have a rocker issue, not clearance though. Now when I did isolate the side, I warmed up the engine, pulled the valve cover, lay out some rags around the head (try to keep them off of the headers), started the engine back up, and was quickly able to isolate which rocker was the culprit. A little messy, but not too bad, and was 100% accurate in finding my noise. If you have clearance issues, at least you'll know as soon as you start it up if the noise is gone. Just a thought. Good luck.

 

[yellow2kgt]

Yes, I spent I few minutes with a long screw driver to my ear. The noise seems to be coming from the front two cylinders on the drivers side. I have also done the same thing you described about 15 years ago with a 351 I built for my old step side ford. For that I actually took some old VCs and cut the top off. Of course that was a stud mount setup with poly locks and I was able to play with lash until it was quiet. On my 93 the upper intake gets in the way and would be a pain.

 

[93lxtwin]

Yeah, I can see how that would be a PITA. Too bad it isn't on the passenger side. I suppose you could still try your old idea of a valve cover with the top cut out. I'm sure you could get a stock cover pretty cheap off ebay or craigslist, or a salvage yard if you don't have one already. At least if the noise is coming from the front two valves, the intake won't block it too bad. Still a pain to have to pull the intake on and off a couple of times. But it would at least help find the issue. That sucks, valve train issues are extremely important to fix, but such a pain to isolate. Good luck buddy.

 

[Cobra1741]

mine tick sometimes as well. when the oil gets warm it thins out and thats typically when it starts. i hear some rockers are just more chattery (word?) =) then others