Could I be floating my valves?
 

I had what sounded like my roller rockers ticking, and I had just thought they needed to be tightened. I took the valve covers off today and checked the rockers and they were all tight. I remember hearing somewhere that the stock valve springs won't be strong enough with a higher lift cam. I had thought that was true only at higher Rpm's, but I hear ticking at idle as well as higher Rpm's. So is it possible that I am floating my valves causing the ticking I hear? The motor has 10,000 since it was installed last year, and i don't remember hearing this back then. Thanks, Craig

I have the same ticking happening. I haven't checked my roller rockers yet but I will now. My car only has 61k miles on it so I don't think my valves are going. My ticking is heard at idle but I can't hear it at speed.

another thing to keep in mind is the ticking may be comming from your lifters. if they are siezed or arent filling with oil they will make a noise. both of you seem to have pedistol mount rockers. which dont usually need adjusting ( unless they were installed wrong). if it is pretty loud (enough to be concerned) i would not see if they are "tight" but see if the preload is set right. if it isnt that can cause valve float as well as a lifter bottoming out.

take care,
adam

My ticking has become very loud. With my window down and the car at idle, I can hear something ticking. The last few times I've started it up, it doesn't turn over the first time. It just makes a whining noise. I think my starter my be going. Could the starter be causing this ticking??

Also, when I turn the car off I can hear something squeek as the engine stops. I think it's the same thing that's ticking when the engine is running... :confused:

every car ive heard with roller rockers makes valvtrain noise, some worse than others, if it is really loud, it could be a lifter, like stated above.

my car makes a noise when i turn it off too, like a throwout bearing squeal.

I would think roller rockers would make things quieter cause of less friction? I don't remember it being this loud when I first installed the motor. Its very annoying listening to the ticking noise while driving, I just want it to be gone! How would i go about checking the lifters if that may be it?

you would have to pull the lower intake off as well as the valve covers and check the pre-load on the lifters...

take a piece of hose and a mechanics stethescope and go over your whole engine while running. you should be able to track down the general area or the ticking. let us know what you come up with. it could be something as simple as a pulley that needs greasing....

take care,
adam

My valve train was noticably louder after new heads and rockers. They are adjustable but are set perfect and proffessionaly.

Get it checked as soon as possible i had the same problem sounds like the exact same problem and my motor die like last week... get it checked they told me that one of the lifters broke now i need a new lower end so if i were you i would go and get it checked

Are you sure it's not an exhaust leak?

Take care,
-Chris

good point Chris, i didnt think of that...

take care,
adam

You know I had thought that a few months ago, and tightened a few loose headers bolts, but still ticked. Now that you mention that, when I was installing my headers on the new motor, the headers wouldn't match up to the bolt holes. We had to oval the holes in the headers to get the bolts to fit. I thought that was pretty weird, cause they were suppose to be stock heads, and the headers fit fine on the old motor. Would doing that create a exhaust leak? Would it be possiable when i bought my long block the builder put on GT40P's instead of stock ones?

Get a 3 foot long piece of heater hose, and use it to listen in and around each header pipe, from the head to the collector, while the engine is running. You'll look silly, but it's cheap and works the best for finding exhaust leaks. Odds are, you've blown a gasket between the port and the bolt hole on one or more cylinders.

Take care,
-Chris

Yeah, check for a header leak.

I had a BAD exhaust leak a while back after I put my BBK's on. They matched up fine to the heads, but the last bolt on the number four cylinder backed out after a couple hundred miles and I was never able to get a wrench on it to tighten it down good enough (that's why I now thank God for GearWrenches...they work awesome on hard to reach places). It got progressively worse and was audible all the time as a loud clicking sound.

When I pulled the headers to swap in some metal core gaskets to replace the paper ones, I found out that the entire number four primary seal on the gasket had blown out making one humongous exhaust leak. After the gasket swap, my car felt like a new beast and picked up a ton of power.

Give it a listen and see what you hear...it doesn't take long for a paper gasket to blow out with a loose header bolt.

--nathan

leak?
 

Yes, is there a loss in power? You indeed might have a header gasket leak, MAC supplies WEAK paper gaskets that turn to stone with heat over time and WILL adventualy fail. Get some good FELPRO gaskets and that will solve the leak prob.

Nope doesn't seem to be a header leak. When the motor was installed we put the metal core header gaskets on, not the cheap paper ones.

I pulled the valve covers off and had a look see and noticed something odd. All the rockers on the drivers side head were glazed with oil execpt for one. It looked a lot cleaner then the rest, and didn't have that oil film on it. Could that be bad?

a good place to start
 

ya, you might have something clogged. or the lifter could be collapsed. I'd check there first.

Pull the distributor and use a drill to spin the oil pump. Watch and see if oil reaches all of the rockers. If not, start pulling and inspecting parts.

Take care,
-Chris

Did you check behind the heads for an exhaust leak, where the smog pump goes in to the head?

I started hearing this "ticking" sound last week. I'm still learning to be a mechanic but I've done the following:
Based on the slightly different sound of the exhaust and the location of the ticking sound, the first place I looked was #7 exhaust rocker arm (header bolts are tight). All rockers were tight and within torque specs. Although the rocker hold down bolt was tight, I noticed by grabbing the pushrod, I could move it down. I took the push rod out and it wasn't bent. I then took the intake off and removed the lifter. I don't know how exactly you are supposed to deem a lifter bad. From what I said earlier, I would think/hope it is the lifter that is causing the problem. I guess it could potentially be on the valve side of the rocker. I believe I'll do a compression test to make sure the valve is seated and not leaking. If this passes, I'll assume the valve springs are ok and assume the lifter is bad. Anyway, I've been needing an excuse to put new parts on my car so this is my chance. Hopefully, doing the above will help locate/fix my problem and while I'm at it I'm going to port the heads a little(especially on exhaust side "bumps") just to clean them up, new cam/lifters/push rods and GT 40 intake 70mm tb/egr are on the way. If the other couple guys who were hearing this sound don't have any luck doing the things the others have suggested, you might want to try what I've done. I'll let you know later how everything turns out.