390 FE Valve Train Clatter

I recently rebuilt the 390 FE in my 62' T-bird. The machinist tanked the block, did all the neccessary block work, balanced everything, installed the cam bearings and furnished all the proper pieces. After cleaning, cleaning and recleaning the block inside and out I screwed it together and installed the FE in said Bird. Now the bad news, it has valve train clatter like a mofo, also very high oil pressure, over 80 psi. The topside gets plenty of oil, but it sure does make a racket. Before I yank it and tear it down I'd like some ideas on what could be happening. BTW, hydrolic lifters w/ mild cam.

 

i think the old fe's had bushings in the rockers. you might check them.

 

Adjustable rockers or non? Pull off a valve cover and pull teh shaft off to inspect the shaft. All the rockers I've used (adj and non) were not bushed and when worn would have a ridge on the bottom of the rocker shaft and you could rock the arm side to side. Does it clatter all the time or when at operating temp?

 

Make sure the rockers are ok. If the have wear on the pads and the valvetips have been reground they can be noisey. Also check your lifter preload. It should be .100-.170 lash with your lifter bled down.

 

The rockers and shafts are new. I intially had non-adjustables, then I tried adjustable rockers, but the clatter remained.

 

Ok, here goes my shot. Check pushrod length compared to what machine work was done on block and heads. Which rockers are on there now, adjustible or non? Although if you adjusted the adjustible rockers right, it shoud not be a problem. I'm a little worried about the high oil pressure too. Steven.

 

The adjustable rockers are in it now, it's possible that cam got messed up before I switched out the non-adjustables. On the oil pressure issue, I was concerned that the cam bearings were install incorrectly, I even discussed that issue with the machinist before ***embly. He ***ured me that sbc's had cam bearings installed similarly and with the groove behind the bearing it didn't matter where the oil hole in the bearing was aligned. Even thou I was skeptical, I took him at his word and put it together.

 

I have mostly rebuild Ford engine but have done some cam swaps on GM . As for the cam bearing being installed anyway you want to , never heard that one before . All the ones I have done on Ford small blocks and Y blocks had to be lined up or you were going to do some real damage when you run the engine .
If the cam is different you really should have measured for the push rods for proper length .
As for having adjustable rockers , did you set them when the engine was running or not running and hot or cold ? If running did the rockers get good oil ?
Something really doesn't sound right !

RetroJim

 

I adjusted them hot, by the book. Engine was not running, but I can confirm that the rockers get good oiling when the engine is running. I agree that something is not right I just can't figure it out.

 

bleed down each rocker and measure your length.when i had my heads redone, they ended up needing a few different lengths of pushrods to get it right...

 

This is an old problem with FEs, first off there is a groove all the way round the bearing bore so the position of the hole is not an issue although I always put them a the 4 o clock position looking at the front. In most FEs the valve lash is adjusted by the valve stem hight and if it is not right or you have too short of push rods you will have clatter. Since you have adjustable rockers just back the all off and go through the firing orderand "pre-load" each lifter like you would a chebbie. With each cylinder on TDC firing run the adjuster down till there is no lash then give it a turn and a half. It would be best to bleed the lifters down before you do this.

 

try retarding your timing then if it still clatters at least you can say its retarded

 

I’m having the same exact issue. How did you end up solving it??

 

was the block decked ? Did your machinist make a cut on the heads ? If so that would make the pushrods longer in relation to the way it was before the rebuild . Then you added a higher lift cam.
You should able to make up for the differences with your adjustable rockers.
As a former Ford dealership line mechanic I would always check pushrod length when I built anything other than stock FE's before I put the intake on.
Check the valve spring retainers for any marks . I had one that hit the rocker and clattered ,took some head scratching to find that.

 

One thing about an FE you can see most of the lifters with a flash light. Check and see if they are preloaded. Was this the orginal block? If not some FEs blocks were not drilled for Hydraulic lifters.