I don't know anything hemi-specific, but if it were me I would go THINNER on the oil (10w-30) rather than thicker. I don't understand the thinking that a new motor with tight tolerances needs something thicker to go in a tight space. If it were a race engine with big tolerances and loads I could see it. I look at it this way.... what would flow down into a crack better.... water or jello?
In the 'old-days', heavy weight oil was used as a band-aid. Now consider that some of the new 'whiz-bang race engines' use '0' weight... ...veeeerrrryyyy tight clearances...... Thinner oil also creates less stress on the oil pump and drive, transfers heat a bit faster and does a better job of 'cleaning'. .
Sometimes lifters get to clicking, replacing it may solve it. I adjusted the push rods to where they can be turned easily, but no slack.
Interesting that you found the dirty rocker shafts but not surprising. When I rebuilt my Dodge hemi I had to drill the oil holes to get the crud out it was so hard. I can't stress enough how careful you have to be to clean the holes in the shafts and rockers. Solvents don't work on 50year old engines
My 354 Chrysler was dirty in the rocker shafts, hot tub and lacquer thinner, followed by a rotary brush...and a bright light and white thin dish towel, and... My 276 De Soto was surprisingly clean. Nevertheless, same rigorous cleaning drill ensued. 'Clean enough' is akin to 'perfect enough'.
Not sure I will help you, but there is a lot on your thread, and I'm to busy to sit and read all the info but I will offer up my experience. Mine is a '55 331 with a reground isky cam. I don't know the specs on it though. My known and little problem is just the opposite of yours and pretty common with engines of all makes in that is just opposite.................a leak prone lifter on #4. It is loud on start up quiets down after warm up, but not always loud on start up. I've gone through the right bank in the past and some how screwed this up. I thought I knew what to do but confirmed my thoughts from a thread some place here on HAMB and Utube. Make sure your on a power stroke, valve closed, set the push rod @ zero lash making sure you can rotate the push rod and load the lifter by going down 1/4th turn more, tighten the nut. I use Castrol 5/30 Magnatec and it woks for me. Not much help for you, just wanted to be among the well wishers on your issue. Good luck
Not a hemi guy and know very little about them if anything. But when I was in high school my truck had this same issue in my 327. I chased it for 2 weeks before replacing the retainers, locks, and rockers. Probelm sovled for me. Didn't see anyone talk about it so it might help and might not. And mabye check your gauge. I had a cheap set that was off and I had a crank get messed up because of it.
I kinda forgot about this thread. So to update it I ended up pulling the intake and all the lifters, to disassemble and clean them. Assembled everything and the noise is less now but just like before, when it’s cold they are quite and once they are warm I get some noise but much less than before. Cam looked good and lobes measured the same, it was a real pain to get the rocker arms off and back on the valve ends while still assembled but saved from putting new head gaskets on Thanks for all the suggestions and for now I am going to live with the noise unless it starts to increase, but I have put 1500 miles on it this summer with no change in behavior or level of noise
Ok, thought I’d chime in. New to the early Hemi world. My problem is ticking until the engine is warm. Cam is a regrind. Lifters were purchased with the cam regrind. This has been persistent since engine break in. I recently adjusted (attempted) the pushrods which are a bear with the engine in the truck. Add to that the engine is set back. Still have the ticking at start up. Quiets down after a few minutes. Definitely lifter bleed down. I have good oil pressure, 60-70 pds cold, 50-60 warm. 30 pds at idle. I run 15/40 Rotello. I’m doing a 241 to replace the 330. I’ll be running adjustable rockers. I had several sets of original lifters refurbished. Oregon cam is my source. Have to say 73RR has been a good source for info.
I had a strange experience with my '52 331 when I first got it in about '65. It was a basket case so I proceeded to deep clean all the parts for reassembly. I was an ignorant teen at the time, doing all my engine work based on reading rod magazines. When I pulled the plugs out of the ends of the rocker shafts I washed out a bunch of white silica sand from every shaft. Each was packed with the stuff to the point I wondered if the factory put it in there on purpose! To this day I have no clue how it got in there. The oil pump was perfect, the rocker shafts and rockers perfect also, in fact I still run them all today, there was no extraordinary wear on any rotating parts as you might expcect with beach sand circulating in an engine. One of life's mysterys. And I have always had ticks in my engine when first started cold but it quiets down within a minute or so.
Off topic to the OP BUT to willys36 post I once traded a 396 BBC to a local guy for a SBC. For some reason my gut told me to tear it done to see what I had, everything was clean as a whistle almost to clean inside and out. Took the intake manifold off only to find the sheetmetal heat shield under the manifold was full of silica sand, had to drill out the rivets that held it on to get it all out. All was forgiven when I noticed it was a DZ 302!
Not so strange if you knew the owner of the SBC, he had glass beaded the Aluminum intake and hosed it off with water unaware the sand particles would be stuck inside. If it were ever started it would have wiped out everything............
I have a similar tick on my 330 Desoto. It runs great but makes an intermittent tick. It seems my hot heads adjustable push rods are bent just a touch and hit the holes in the heads. No amount of lash adjustments or oil changes will fix that. It's not enough to make metal or do any damage. It's just annoying. I'm going to pull them this winter and straighten them.
I have a set of adjustable pushrods I’m not going to use. I ordered them for my 241 but decided to have my rocker assembly converted over to adjustable.
I read the whole thread, 4 pages on the OG post 31Vicky had the path. How about this: if you have a tick on one hole. Trade the rocker with another to determine if it's a rocker issue. Or an issue with that cylinder. If it's an issue with that cylinder, check the valve heights, and cam lift, could be a lobe wearing, Could be a seat and valve at a different height. If it's a singular rocker issue, replace or find out why, determine if it's worn from oil starvation. Swapping lifters from hole to hole is dicey with break in, up to you.
Having the same problem with my 354 going to install a new set of lifters replacing the hot head lifters. I know my shafts are clean and my oil pressure is good.
Never had any kind of Heni problem, ever! Other than I ain’t got one. I can’t afford to buy one. Anyone want to give me one so I can have some too?
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