clattering after rebuild, need help.....

I know its very difficult to do this stuff on the web, but at this point ANY help is welcomed. The engine has been rebuilt, bored out, new pistons, new cam lifters push rods, oil pump rebuilt, HEI added, and i have clatter from the top end on the drivers side only. I am at a loss with whats going on, i have 40#s of oil pressure at start up and 25# once warm, i dont have oil flying all over when the valve covers are off, but when i put cardboard up there is about the same amount of spatter on both sides, but its not much at all.

I am beyond frustrated with the whole thing so like i said ANY help/guidance is greatly appreciated

Thanx, Jason

 

thats a good question, but i cant really tell, its a CTR performance unit if it matters, i used one of there HEI's on an old YJ i had with good results.....all i know is that its coming from the drivers side, and to me it seems to be coming from the head/rocker area......should i be able to get a feeler gauge between the arms and the valve stems, i havent tried it yet, but someone else did just mention that to me. the reason being that since its got non adjustable rockers there shouldnt be any lash right, or am i over thinking things now....

 

well i thought maybe that was the issue and a mechanic friend of mine said the same thing, but i have run it for prolly around 7 hours since the rebuild, and still getting clatter. And, actually this is the second set of lifters, i called comp cams with the issue originally and they sent me another set, and the new set did quiet it down a bunch, also the rockers are really rocking now, lol, so i think that was part of it of the original issue.......

 

If you took apart the rocker assy, are you positive you put it back together correctly? This is very important because it can be put back together wrong yet appear to work correctly because of 225's lack of oil appearing in the rocker area.

 

The port originates at the cam bearing, at the front of the engine. There is a groove cut in the cam shaft to allow the oil a path way from the passenger side of the engine. There are two holes in the front cam bearing approximately at the 10 and 2 o'clock positions for the oil feed. The 2 o'clock hole feeds the rocker shaft on the drivers side of the engine.

 

yes i am absolutely sure the rockers went back together correctly, i was very carefull for that exact reason, i also borrowed a set of rockers off a friend of mine to make sure my rockers werent wore to the point of having slop.....

thank you Lamar, at least i have a better idea of the oil flow now, am i correct in thinking that there isnt an issue with the cam bearing if the passanger side isnt making any noise, or is it possable that there is something wrong there.....

 

Jason,
Did you have new cam bearings put in the block as part of the rebuild? What Lamar describes as part of the path for oil flow, the oil under pressure exiting from the holes in the cam bearing, could be compromised if there is excess clearance in the cam bearing.
This is the problem that the old Y block Fords had, and would result in oil starvation to the rocker shaft assemblies.

Don

 

yep all new bearings......

 

Jason,
I just went out to the shop an took a closer look at my engine ,, I found the oil port you mentioned , so I put the head gasket on , and it blocks off about half the port. sorry for the bad pic. Dan

 

yeah i already had the heads off again to check that the port wasnt blocked by the HG, and it wasnt on mine, this is gonna suck if i gotta pull the front of the engine back off to check the cam bearings.......is there any way around this to check the cam bearings, the guy that did my block is a very reputable engine builder in the area, i cant believe he would have screwed it up like this.....

 

but i dont think the lifters are starved, they all seem to be pumped up and rockin the rockers, did you mean to say the rockers.........or does the oil go through the cam to the lifters........

 

Jason,
When I was dealing with the problem of lack of oiling to the rocker shaft asssemblies on my old Y block Ford 292, I found I could remove the rocker shaft assembly on one head, pull the pushrods as well, and actually start the engine running on the 4 cylinders under the other head. In this way I determined there really was no oil coming out of the oil passage coming up through the head, the one that feeds the rocker shaft assembly. Apparently the rotation of the cam also had an effect, because one head got oil up and the other did not. Neither passage was plugged in any way.
I would suspect that a Dauntless would also run on only 3 cylinders if you were to remove the rocker shaft assembly and pushrods on one side. I would not rev it much doing this, you don't want the lifters popping out of their bores. I got away with this on the old Ford engine because of the mushroom shape solid lifters that could only be removed from the bottom.

Another thing to check is the sheet metal plate that mounts on top of the rocker shaft assembly on one side, I think the passenger side head if I remember correctly. If this is installed upside down, it will keep the valves on that side from closing all the way (don't ask how I know this). It might make some noise as well, and it sure won't run well with no compression on the 2 back cylinders on that side.

Don

 

lol, i actually thought about tryin to run it on 3 cylinders, but i was weary of popping the lifters out........ as for the sheetmetal plate, i dont have that on my rockers