i have had a tick or knock before and here is what i found. 1. Exhasut leak 2. bad fan belt 3.oil disptick in worng and hitting the crank 4. Rockers hitting vavle covers...double double check this...
That's why I thought exhaust leak. Lifters are louder when cold. Rods too. Exhaust gets louder if there's a crack that opens when the pipes are hot.
Did you use oil with Zink in it???? Like Valvoline racing oil?? If not then you have started to eat the cam. Modern oil is not designed to support Flat tapped engines!!
It's definitely more than a light ticking. It started doing it when the engine was hot about a block away from home. I let it cool and started it up when I got home from work and the sound was till there. The sound was not evident before hand. Thanks
I checked the rockers hitting the covers. Still made the noise with the covers off. New belt. I do have an exhaust leak but the sound seems like it's coming from inside. I will check the dipstick. Thanks
I broke the engine in within comp break in oil then changed to calcimine racing with an addition of Lucas zinc additive.
one old way of checking for rod bearing failure is to warm the motor up , then bring the revs up slowly( 25-3000) while watching the oil pressure gauge , then take your foot quickly off the pedal , if the oil pressure drops quick 15-20 pounds or flickers then picks back up again its ussually a rod bearing as taking the foot off takes the pressure off the rod and opens the clearances up from the rod having to be pulled instead of having pressure exerted on it . also the noise will be a little louder .
Funny Anecdote about a fresh built sbc with a knock coming from the center of the engine..... About 8 years or so ago I was helping a friend rebuild a sbc. We were almost finished with it when I had to leave. All that was left was putting on the intake. He said he'd do it while I was gone, which he did. When we installed it it made all sorts of crazy noises, knocking, ticking, pinging, etc. He got super worried. We took off the intake to check it out only to find that he had left the can of Right Stuff rtv sealant in the lifter valley in his haste to get the intake back on. Lifters were catapulting it all over the lifter valley. Put the intake back on and worked like a charm. Anyway, just a story I was reminded of. Another thought.... How much break in time did you give it? I'm not talking about initial break-in. I'm talking about keeping out of the pedal and not revving the heck out of it and doing burn outs. Most fresh builds need about 250-500mi of babied driving to be ready for any serious duty. I have seen a few new motors ruined by fellas excited to have a new engine that try to celebrate right off the bat with a hole-shot only to come back with a knock or a broken piston ring landing. Anyway hope you are closer to finding the issue.
Just listened using the screwdriver method. The sound is coming from #8 intake. I'm going to try readjusting the valves after the kids go to sleep. Thank you all for the advice so far
Just listened using the screwdriver method. The sound is coming from #8 intake. I'm going to try readjusting the valves after the kids go to sleep. Thank you all for the advice so far
I hate to say it but I think my engine is toast. I checked the valve lash on #8 and was at 0.017" intake and 0.021" exhaust. They were set to 0.016" hot originally. I readjusted them and the sound is still prevalent. I then noticed a fine metallic dust in the oil that pooled up in the heads with a few small slivers of silver metal. I tried listening again down by the oil pan and can hear the knock down there also by the #8 journal. I guess I'm going to Pull the oil pan first as it's less involving then if the rods check out on to pulling the intake. I'm so frustrated. I've been building this car for almost 10 years and finally got it running and now have this setback. I work like crazy so it's hard to find time to fix it. Sorry for the rant I needed to vent. I will get it running hell or high water!
Hang in there Devin, This kind of set back has happened to me and lots of others. Keep the faith, and good luck. Let us know what you find!
some of the powder are from the cam/lifter faces burnishing in so do not get too upset . and ussually if it was a rod bearing you wouldn't see it up there as the oil has to go thru the filter first . BTW did you check to make sure the valve coils are not bound ( bottoming out) on full lift or any interference with spring/retainer and guides??? I had a dampner spring get pinched ( ****ed ) and made a knocking noise as it was hitting the inside of the retainer and top of the valve guide when the valve opened
One other thing to check is maybe just maybe a broken valve spring or a bent pushrod. Lets hope for the best
First, you need to figure out if the extra 0.005 lash that has appeared is related or not. I'm going to guess that its not. Back there by # 8, there's a few things that can make noise that involve the oil pump. Try this - Diagnose Noises with a timing light? Valve train noises occur at half of crankshaft speed so even if your ear can't tell whether the noise is happening at 700 rpm (raps per minute) or only 350 rpm, your eyes can. Hook the timing light to any one cylinder and watch the flash illuminate the timing mark. Stare at it for a while and see if the flash jives with the knock. If it does, then it is more likely to be rocker arms, pushrods, lifters, camshaft, cam bearings, timing chain and gears. If the noise seems twice as fast it is probably in the crank, mains, rods, rod bearings, wristpins and pistons. http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jfarrugi/images/vanagon/engdiagnosis.html
If the metal is up top, and lash has increased that much in a short time, I'd spin the pushrods by hand & see if there's a bent one. It could be banging the block quite loudly, sounding like a bad rod. Maybe you'll get lucky. A rod knock is a sad thing to hear alright
Check your push rod ends and roller rockers. If you didn't put hardened push rods in and used the stock push rods when you installed the roller rockers, there is a good chance the roller rockers are eating the push rod tops. I learned the hard way!
A rod knock is a sad thing to hear alright You'd swear there's a little ****er in there with a hammer and he really wants out.
So I finally got a chance to check out the knock with the light and the sound seems to coincide with the noise. I hooked it up to the suspect #8 plug wire. I'm hoping the rest of the engine is not a wash. Thank you for the tip
Guideplate to pusrod clearance, pushrod to head clearance? Any binding or signs these parts and hitting?
Try this. Take your valve cover off on the side with #8 and start it up now tighten one of the valves down to were it holds the valve open to kill that cylinder and see if noise goes away if it does I would suspect a scuffed piston.
Will do. I tried unplugging the plug wires one cylinder at a time to see if the knock would stop. Would unplugging #8 accomplish the same thing?
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