need another opinon with this problem

If the idle is better and you don't have valvetrain noise you can just about bet they're hydraulics. You mentioned earlier that you wanted to make sure that the valve adjustment was perfect. Adjusting solids is more of a "perfection" job but hydraulics are pretty forgiving. With the engine running just adjust them to zero lash where they just stop clicking. Shut off the engine and slowly take them down another half turn or so.

Some people will say to leave them at zero lash but on a street driven engine they'll hold their adjustment longer and run quieter with the extra half turn of preload.

You might need to wait a few minutes before restarting the engine till the lifters bleed down to let the valves close. Otherwise it may have a miss for a while when you restart it, but it should come out of it.

 

I had a similar problem on the "warmed up then smoke" issue,on a Chevy engine one time....
It would lose a small amount of coolant each month of driving as well.
Iturned out the head was slightly cracked =INISDE THE EXHAUST PORT=.....[after the exhaust valve].....
this allowed it to warm up- crack opened up/ leak started /tiny amount od drip out of that pipe,and a tad of greyblue smoke too....
IT DID NOT MISS or heat up any-tho as it was "out of the cylinder" already and did not foul a plug as a result.....

 

Are you ajusting the valves by the firing order? Set the timing pointer at TDC compression stroke ( It has to be on the compression stroke so that both valves are closed) set the number one cylinder valves then rotate the engine 90% and set the next cylinder in the friring order. Continue this through the intire fring order. Then your valves should be correct.

 

Mine wasn't as simple as it must have sounded. It didn't smoke, it didn't rattle. It idled ok considering the cam is pretty hot. Throttle response was super. After removing a collector type header and installing zoomies i saw a light mist of oil, (which wasn't visible with the collected headers), just when i'd bump the throttle. Doing the leakdown test was a WTF moment.

 

Reading all your comments, it very well could be something wrong with the head or gasket. By reading the reviews on my heads by cast number in the past it sounds very likely it's cracked. I put on a shorter, larger gauge (4AWG) wire to the back of the head, and added another strap, as a test, from the battery ground on the chassis to the ground connection on my frame farther up. Made a big improvement with throttle response, and now I can tell the smoke is definitely oil, or at least mostly oil, very blue. Must have needed a better ground connection to really get a good burn on that oil. Sadly, the smoke is now seeming like it's getting worse...

And yup, I now agree, they must be hydraulic lifters, which is a relief! Means a lot less work for me lol.

I have been saving up for some good aluminum heads, still not sure exactly what I want, but ill figure it out when I have 100% of the money in hand. Do you all think I should pull the head and take a look? Or are there a few more tests I should do? A hot compression test would be just about impossible, cant even get my hands in there without touching the exhaust manifolds... Not sure how visible a crack would be, never seen one in person.

Edit: Now that I think about it, I think it's time I do what ClayMart said to do earlier, and that is timing with a vacuum gauge attached, just to attempt to get rid of all the other issues BEFORE putting any more money into parts. (It still runs rich)

 

This morning I fired her up once again to pay attention to the engine VERY carefully. Took probably 30min or more when I FINALLY noticed a very slight dip in the rpm's, probably less than 100rpm drop and the engine began to feel a bit tired... I had not set the valves on the passenger side yet, or check to see what kind of lifters I have.

When I later came back and readjusted the valves, put the valve cover back on, and noticed immediately upon starting she sounded OUTSTANDING!

I have one tapping sound on the passenger side now, so tomorrow ill be back to figure out which one it is and properly adjust. Ill have those oil deflectors ordered soon so I can adjust when the engine is warm and running.

A shocking note: It does not seem normal, but with my timing light I'm getting a reading of about 16* BTDC @ idle without vac. advance... with all the work which has been done, the idle has increased to 1200rpm, so ill lower it to about 800rpm and see how it looks.

 

I just wanted to add for other people who drop by this thread through google, I recently tore the engine down till it was just the bare block, the issues were as follows:

-Warped driver-side head, was trading pressures between cylinders 3 and 5 when engine heats up. This was caused because all of the bolts on the heads were torqued differently, I suspect it was from someone using an air wrench.

-Little bits of sand got into all the bearings and tore them up, which explains all the strange noises.

 

It sounds like a good machinist is in order now! And some careful rebuilding techniques.
After putting back together the right way{unlike the previous builder} I bet this thing will haul****.