Some have been following the saga of the Rivieras 430. Its all back together and running great but theres valve trane noise that get louder as it warms up. A bit of background. in 17 - 18 ish I bought a Dewitt aluminum radiator and installed it in the car. After watching some vids I saw Jay Leno recommend Evans Waterless coolant. Ok, think thats the way to go so I buy 4 gals of the stuff but didnt want to spend an additional 2oo$ on the flush recommended to get all the water out of the system and devised another method that ended up in a over heat , blown head gasket and then the waterless stuff getting into the oil which wiped the main and rod bearings. Pulled the engine, cleaned everything out, new bearings in the bottom. Resurfaced the one warped head.. Back together and running but with a tick. Fast fwd a couple yrs and 3000 miles. Driving the car down to a show 4 hours away, the tick is getting louder. By the time I got home it was really loud and later found the #1 ex guide was completely wabbled out,valve seat pushed up into the head. Blowing compression back into the crankcase, made a huge mess. oil pushing out past every seal. Took my heads to a local shop to get fixed. There still there untouched. Got tired of waiting and posted the "TA Head thread" looking for a set of upgraded replacements. Thumper stepped up and helped me out with a ported set of Alumn stage 1's . Now, using the new style heads required me to change up the oiling to flowing through the pushrods. Got the Hybrid rods from TA. Set lash and preload properly assembled and fired up. Still got noise. Gets louder as the engine warms up but running great.. Im getting oil top side but nothing like it was when flowing through the head and rocker bar. Have pulled the covers and added more preload 2 times with no improvement. Im now at 9.476. Tim @ TA said they can go up to +.060 over 0 lash and im pretty much there. When it was open I inspected the cam and lifters for wear. Bottoms and lobes both looked good. no noticeable play between the 430 rockers and shafts. Really at a loss here. Guessing the next step is a new cam / lifters or at the very least new lifters. Tim recommends the Rhodes if putting new on a old cam. Might try to pull a set of the stamped steel rockers off one of the parts motors and see if theres any difference there. Open to ideas...
Briz, Is your oil pressure still good? I think I saw you were looking for roller rockers? When I switched over to Stage 1 SE’s I had the same issue. As the engine warmed up the lifter tick just kept getting louder. I would guess I pulled the valve covers off 8-10 times to adjust the lash on the roller rockers before I got it to be acceptable. I am no valve train geometry wizard but I think solid pushrods with TA rollers would be the best way to set your lash. Maybe someone with more expertise will chime in. Cliff
Are you sure you don't have a leak at the header? Maybe a cracked primary tube? You could pull the plug wires one at a time as it's running and see if the noise stops.
Yup, Joe took the words right out of my mouth.. determine which side it is, then short the cylinders out one at a time on that side, to see if the noise stops/changes in conjunction with a cylinder you short out, then you know it's exhaust. If your sure it's a lifter, which is all that is left if it's not a rocker or adjustment, then drain the crankcase down a quart, and put a quart of ATF in it. That's an old mechanic trick to free up varnished up lifters. Couldn't hurt.. JW
Quite sure. Using Remflex gaskets on TA shorty headers. Using the old tube in the ear trick on and around each rocker / spring as its running with the covers off. I cut the top out of a old steel valve cover so oil dont go all over the head and fender. Heres an older vid where you can see the open top cover in use.
I'm leaning towards the lifters. Even though I disassembled and cleaned them out after the oil contamination issue... thinking they got some wear and just not staying pumped up. I can do the lifters in the car but if it comes to a cam swap more than likely I'll pull the engine again. The noise is very slight on #1 &7 ex when cold but as it warms up and the oil thins out everything starts making noise.
Sorry if off topic but I only read the title because I have no attention span but Yeh brother, I feel ya,had an annoying tick too my friend.
So its been a month. Had the top of the engine off and back on. Replaced the lifters with TA's recommended 1405 Johnson Hyd lifters. Reassembled and did the break in. 1500- 2000 RPM for 20 mins. Engine stayed at operating temp the entire time. At speed I didnt hear any noise after the first couple of mins of run time but when I brought her back down to idle could hear some tapping. Not like before with 1 or 2 just happering away in there. All of them lightly tapping. Had to pull the covers and replace the inner springs anyway so I added another .030 preload to the adjustable pushrods. I get exactly .30 for each complete turn. Still got noise. Not loud and annoying like before but its there. Maybe Im just too sensitive to it, but if I think I can hear it going down the road its too loud. Have pulled the 68 rocker bar apart. no noticeable wear or play in the rockers. I can see oil flowing when I look down into the cover while running. When the pushrods were out , took a look into the valley with a bore scope and all looked good in there. Maybe the next step is to replace the rocker bars with the later 70's style stamped steel units? Perhaps I just have to live with it. Pretty sure all of the bases have been covered. Is this common when switching to pushrod oiling from through the head?
I'm going through a similar ordeal with a small block chevy right now. I have great oil pressure, 25-30 at idle after a significant drive, everybody is adjusted right, everybody is getting a bath. Makes no difference from 1/4 turn to 1 full turn of preload...when it warms up it gets noisy. I'm about scared to build anything with a hydraulic cam anymore at this rate. Seems like everyone has had issues the last couple of years.
Run it without the belts on and see if it changes. At the very least it'll eliminate lots of white noise and help determine where it's coming from.
I have been putting up with this on my 350 for 25 years does the same thing, quiet as a mouse on start up, I have just decided to live with it. Ran 2 different cams and same thing. I am going to cure it with a solid lifter cam this time. My shafts were worn from the roller bearings in the rr. had to change all the bearings in the rr. so will see shat happens with new cam.
Send the bill to Jay Leno. He's a nice guy and might not want to recommend that waterless coolant anymore.
Honestly, It wasnt the coolant , well it really was, but my short cut screw up that caused the damage. If I'd just spent the extra cash back then and done things like they recommended I'd have saved hundreds spent in damage control
