Lifter noise 1962 390

wisconsinjimmy · Post by **wisconsinjimmy** » Tue May 26, 2009 6:37 pm

Is the 390 known for tappet noise? Reason I ask is the engine was just overhauled and seems to be a wee bit on the ticky side, compression is a nice 150psi on all eight with the engine hot.

redstangbob · Post by **redstangbob** » Tue May 26, 2009 6:52 pm

Sorry Jimmy, the short answer is no. It should be nice and quiet, how's the oil pressure?

wisconsinjimmy · Post by **wisconsinjimmy** » Tue May 26, 2009 9:27 pm

I darn near took the engine out today but after the compression check I can see nothing wrong and at 150psi on less then 20 minutes run time I am happy. I have a little blow by out the breather but not worried as it should clean up when broke in.
40 psi at idle, I have even removed the intake and put the old lifters back in, the new lifters were a tad taller so was hoping for some luck on this one. The one thing that does bother me is that most of the pushrods are rotating very nice while a couple are not. One other question with the tappet covers off how much oil should be pumping out and should it be close to a spray? I am leaning to not enough oil on the pushrods. When standing behind and listening to the exhaust it is a nice low rumble through the Smitty's with hardly a miss.
.

redstangbob · Post by **redstangbob** » Wed May 27, 2009 7:55 am

If I remember you left the old cam in? Now you have the old lifters as well? Are you sure the old stuff is still serviceable? The push rods are solid, they don't 'oil'. It's common practice to restrict the oil to the rocker shafts, they flood the top end and cause lower system oil pressure over all.

wisconsinjimmy · Post by **wisconsinjimmy** » Wed May 27, 2009 12:04 pm

I could see nothing wrong and the old parts speced out OK, I am now beginning to think I am not getting enough oil to the top hence the tappet noise.

wisconsinjimmy · Post by **wisconsinjimmy** » Wed May 27, 2009 2:32 pm

Update on the noisy tappets, I removed the rocker shafts this morn and dizzy chucked the air drill onto the pump and gave it a mighty spin and walla oil all kinds of it, so next step was to wash the shaft out install and try again and allaw no oil, loosened the bolt for the oil hole and walla oil so now I am in the process of dissasembling the shafts to give em a good cleaning hope this works.
PS. 60 psi with the drill.

redstangbob · Post by **redstangbob** » Wed May 27, 2009 3:29 pm

While you're there, you might check the position of the necked down bolt, one on each side. Good luck, Bob c

wisconsinjimmy · Post by **wisconsinjimmy** » Wed May 27, 2009 5:10 pm

That is the long one you are speaking of correct? I try to keep bolts in the same holes and sometimes one gets side tracked as I figured that out as the shorter bolts will not work in the oil holes, I now have oil flowing from all the rockers and as soon as I can figure out the wiring on the duraspark I will fire it up.

redstangbob · Post by **redstangbob** » Wed May 27, 2009 6:10 pm

Yep, the longer bolt also has a smaller shank for half of it's length. Thats what lets oil get into the rocker stand and through the shaft. If the bolts are in the wrong place you starve the rockers of oil, and the long bolt doesn't tighten in the wrong hole leaving the lifters without enough pre-load. Good luck with the rest, Bob C

wisconsinjimmy · Post by **wisconsinjimmy** » Wed May 27, 2009 6:42 pm

It runs and is quite in the rocker box or is it valve cover or tappet cover yup nice and quite. Now to finish the exh and wait for the new detent to arrive.

wisconsinjimmy · Post by **wisconsinjimmy** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 10:24 pm

Hi,
I removed the engine and tore it back down to find my problem and it was the cam and the new lifters which ruined the cam and the lifters (my fault) I have ordered a new cam kit from Lunati and will give the engine a nice thump. I also am going to put in a C6 instead of the COM and will have to install the new shifter at least I will get rid of the jump out of park glitch now I need a spool and 4:11 gears to get this hulk moving.
Jim