Thread: Noisey lifter at startup???

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Noisey lifter at startup???

Just installed new Aluminum heads, cam, lifters & roller rockers and I have one or two noisey lifters on cold startup! Not real bad, at all. You can just hear an individual lifter or two above the rest. After a few minutes the lifters quiet down. The whole valve trains seems much noiser since I did the parts change over, but not like it's coming apart. It runs like gangbusters, so it can't be too far off! I must have picked 100 h.p. because there's a world of difference.

Any ideas? My only guess is that the roller rocker adjustment a little tight causing it to have to pump up after it sits awhile. That's my only guess!

Could aluminum heads, a little higher lift cam, roller rockers and steel valve covers cause enough more valve train noise as compared to my old stock steel heads and cast aluminum valve covers to be part of what I'm hearing??



Ideas??? Feel free to tell me I worry too much!

Make sure you do not have an exhaust leak. Even a crack can sound like a lifter and clear up once the exhaust gets hot enough to expand the header/exhaust manifold.

I've recently posted about this, the 331 stroker motor I put together is noisy as h*** until it warms up. I also have a roller cam and Harlan Sharp roller rockers on Edelbrock aluminum heads. I think some of the noise is coming from the piston clearance and stroke, but it is hard to be sure in an engine where certain noises come from.........they telegraph so much. Roller rockers are noisy too, I hear. I've torn mine down twice to find something out of spec and can't find anything.

Everyone I have talked to says don't worry about it, so I'm not. I'll just crack the caps on the headers open a little so I can't hear it. Like yours, mine seems to run fine otherwise and revs like mad, so unless something happens like oil pressure drop I am not going to sweat it. Maybe this is the price we pay for building a high performance engine? Maybe aluminum heads are not good at masking sounds like cast iron ones?

Don

I suspect roller rockers are a little less forgiving in adjustment. Stamped rockers and hydraulics can be adjusted as the engine runs so it's easier to get any sound out of them. Adjusting roller rockers when the engine is not running is more like adjusting solid lifters. If you get them just a little off you hear it!