Technical 53 Chevy SBC 350 Ticking Noise - Bad Lifters?

I'm most frustrated because I bought the car without looking hard at it and knowing what I was doing or getting myself into. It looked really nice, the guy seemed honest and nice but a lot of the work on the car was done very shoddy and I got the car thinking I would be doing oil changes, brake pads, tune up etc.. not big projects. I didn't think someone could actually do such shoddy work and get away with it for a fixed period of time but I am learning!

In either case I'm going to just get over that and do the best I can to drive it soon so the frustration goes away some.

Do you know why that stud looks like that? Did someone try to grind it and then decided to just leave it alone and put it on the head? That looks like someone tried to cut it off more than a cut/indent made from wear? I'm really curious.

 

Since the heads seem to be a bit sketchy, take them off and have them rebuilt with new screw in studs. Get all new rockers, pivot balls and make sure they do not bind on the new studs. This should fix up the bulk of the issues. Toss in some new push rods as well.

 

#4 exhaust stud damaged
#4 exhaust rocker different
#4 pushrod different.
Noise from p***enger side

I'd say there's at least 1 problem there & the different parts were an attempt at "treating the symptoms" vs correcting the problem. Much like you changing #1 rocker to treat the symptom of rocker rotation where the problem is something else. Warbled out pushrod hole is also a symptom/evidence of either a current or former problem.

Have you heard my ****ogy of old cars and water pipes?

Old cars back on the road are like turning the water back on in an old house. You open the valve and the pipes are leaking, its the biggest leaks that shows up first. So you fix them then turn the valve again get some pressure in the lines and find the next leaks. You fix those then turn the valve only to find the drips. You fix those and now there's no leaks and the system now gets to see FULL pressure and then the weakest pipe bursts. You start over again.

 

^^^^^ Yep , pretty much... it'a all about perspective..... in about '66 I was under my '57 chev. in my grandfathers driveway , slipped w/a wrench & bloodied some knuckles...let out a string of profanity that'd make a sailor blush..grandpa , being the quiet man he was , leaned over the fender & said , Some dumb *** in detroit built that thing , you outta be ableto fix it !! Perspective !!!!
dave

 

Thank you, a polished turd indeed...ironically, I got up this morning an hour early to work on a plumbing fixture on my house.

Supposedly this engine has low miles on the rebuild and the previous owner didn't touch the rocker arms. Who knows where the heads came from, therefore maybe it's possible the engine builder saw the "D" shaped hole and decided to put a late GM rocker arm. That is speculation. Why the push rod is different? Not sure.

The question is how did that stud get that slot in it? I didn't see anything on the pivot ball or rocker arm that looked like it would have cut into it. To me it looks like someone may have worked on that cylinder head and accidentally cut into that stud.. or maybe someone thought it would be funny to use a die grinder to cut into that. Any other thoughts?

 

Yea, that's the most annoying thing.. It's one thing to fix something from wear and tear but another from some jack*** doing shoddy work.

 

Thanks. If the heads look like that, I question the rest of the engine even though it was rebuilt with low miles. Instinct tells me just go with a bandaid solution right now and let that engine die.

I'm just not sure if I can fix that stud with the heads still in the car as suggested earlier by porkn******. I know there are stud removers to pull them out but putting a new stud with a hammer on the car sounds like trouble?

 

Hell that's a oil notch. Custom racing studs right there.

On the condition of your heads I have seen lots of engines rebuilt where they just did the short block and bolted the rest of it back together. The short blocks were good and I have no idea why someone would do the short block and not even look at the heads. I think it falls into the realm of I got enough money to rebuild this motor and when counting the cost they figure the short block alone.

 

I have a used set of rockers pushrods balls and nuts, lifters too. That I pulled from a 350 last fall (1973 I believe) They are yours for the shipping cost grease crud and all. Let me know if you're interested. Maybe between the two sets you can get a good set together.

 

I'm having a hard time knowing if the oil notch is a joke or not. Should I leave that stud alone?

I have to expect anything and everything with that engine. It leaks oil, it's dirty and ugly on the outside, someone rebuilt it on a low budget. The pistons looked ok when I took the head out on the driver side a month ago.

The best case is I try bandaid solutions so I can drive the car temporarily since I'm in the middle of a house sale and I don't want a car that is un-driveable short distances. Later in time I can get different heads or even a completely different SBC.

 

Oh thanks so much for the offer! I think the rocker arms I have are fine but I'd have to replace studs to put different pivot balls on so they slide up and down correctly. At that point I might as well take the heads out and go with a different set.

 

The little roll eye dude means sarcasm. if that is any help.
yes replace the stud and any of them that are worn enough to see that they are worn.

 

Every Chevy you are looking at to buy, is a Corvette engine, and has recently been rebuilt.
Lot of good advice here. Just keep tackling each problem as it comes and maybe, eventually you'll have a car that will be reliable for a short time. Just get used to old cars needing extra maintenance and repairs. It's the nature of the beast.
Just try to keep your spirits up while dealing with it. If you can't, old cars aren't the thing for you!
My first car was a 57 convert that was a real POS. Worked on it every weekend, to be able to drive it to school during the week. NO FUN! But I got to be a pretty good mechanic after a couple years of this!

 

Thanks sorry lack of sleep, trying to do too many things at once.

I wonder if that stud was eaten up from a previous build. The rocker arm and rocker ball didn't show signs of wear to cause the stud notch. I will look again tonight.

 

Thanks for the encouragement. I will keep trying to tackle the issues that come up. I'm mainly fixing shoddy work.. owell.

 

Looks to me like it is notched by a dremmel and a cutoff wheel.

My experience with used engines is to just do what I know works and not worry what happened to the engine before I got it. I probably would not go to the expense of screw in studs unless I was going to be revving the engine a lot. press in studs work just fine on your basic driving around car.

 

Thanks yea I am just cruising in it.

will this work? It's one of the only press in studs I could find with the search keywords I used.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/slp-mr-1752

 

Should work just fine. Put it in the freezer overnight before you set it.

 

A .003 press fit in steel takes quite a bit of oomph on an ***embled engine in a car. I would tap them for screw in studs. The hole is the right size once the old studs come out. It would take a lot of masking off, but definitely doable with some patience.

 

That slot in the side of #4 stud was done by the rocker arm; maybe not the one on there now, but the one before. As suggested, replace that stud and use the guided rockers on the valves that have worn out pushrod guide holes and get on down the road
P.S. those rocker balls should always be an easy slip fit.

 

Kinda difficult to see, but are some of these self-aligning rockers and some of them not?

 

Thanks. I would have to replace all the studs to get easy slip fit on all of them. That might be a lot of work and risk something goes wrong if I do all of them without taking the cylinder head out. I'm thinking just replace the one with a slot on the side for now.

 

The #1 intake is a late GM with guides/rails that I bought two days ago. The #4 exhaust (the one with the messed up stud) also has a late GM rocker arm someone must have put on there. The rest are smooth on the bottom so not self aligning ones.

 

Now I'm thinking I should buy this set for sure. Used late GM rail rockers, all new nuts and new pivot balls.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Stock-GM-305-350-Chevy-Rocker-arms-1-5-w-New-nuts-Groove-Balls-Self-center/181710484501?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIC.MBE&ao=1&asc=29386&meid=3981b434886e40e3be3a0220395fe87f&pid=100011&rk=2&rkt=10&sd=181699247061

 

One thing to remember when you finally get this thing going is to use an oil with a high zinc content. If you don't you could flatten out a cam shaft lobe in no time. I was having similar problems you are having and thats what it turned out to be. I use Valvoline VR1 and subs***ute one quart of oil with Lucas Engine Stabalizer. So far so good... Good luck man.

 

I don't think you want to use self-aligning rockers on the pushrod guides in the heads that are still good , the two will fight eachother for alignment , AFA replacing the bad stud , don't some of those go into a water jacket ,??? I can't remember , but something you need to know .... I'm guessing the reason the rockers won't pull off is those self locking stock rocker nuts acually "cut" into the threads , raising them slightly...
dave

 

Thanks I'm going to keep that in mind.

 

I know some head bolts go into the water jacket but I don't think the studs do.

Some of the rocker pivot balls pull off the stud just fine and others are quite tight to get off by hand but easy with a small amount of force using a pulley extractor. Every single nut comes off pretty easily from the stud threads. It's the pivot balls that are not sliding up and down nicely. they are hard to get out but the force of the nut pushes them down fine when tightening.

 

Yeah, I'm thinking that's a good plan also, ***uming they don't cause interference like mentioned above. What is the casting number of those heads? Should be a raised cast number of six to 8 digits between two pairs of rocker studs. Look up that number and you should be able to pinpoint what heads those are.

Kurt

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Thanks the casting number is : 3947041
I don't know if they may have been from a camaro. when I looked up those numbers I didn't find much.