Wrong LIM gasket and valvetrain noise?

[herbiethemisfit]

Greetings All! I've been lurking about the board for a couple weeks getting as much info as I can. I just completed the replacement of the head and intake gaskets on my friend's '96 Grand Am. Now that it is up and running we are getting a lot of valvetrain noise.

After doing even more research I determined my friend bought the incorrect gasket set. My question is, can using the LIM gasket designed for roller rockers arms (FEL-PRO Part # MS90562) cause a problem when installed on a ball/pivot rocker arm setup? Looking at pictures of the two, the big difference is obviously the additional plastic pushrod guides on the roller rocker gasket.

I pulled the valve cover off the front head to see if I could determine the exact source of the noise. It looks like only half of the rockers are getting sufficient oil up thru the pushrods. Using a rubber hose, those same rockers appear to making the ticking noise. Coincedentally (or maybe not) the 3 making noise are all the same - intake I believe. Could this be related to said incorrect LIM gasket?

Thanks in advance,
Jim

[Superdave]

did you put the pushrods in the right spots?

the exhaust ones are longer...

[herbiethemisfit]

Yes - we were VERY careful about keeping the pushrods in order.

[herbiethemisfit]

Can anyone else offer any advice? We are going to dig into it again this weekend to see if there is anything else we can determine. I may attempt to try an cut off a couple of the plastic guides on the gaskets to see if they are possible interfering with the motion of the push rod.

Doing some more searching, I also came across discussions on a 3rd LIM gasket from felpro that supposed to be superior to the plastic ones. It's the metal one and there is some debate on whether it works for both the ball/pivot rockers as well as the roller rockers. If we have to replace the gasket can we use this one?

Thanks again!

[SappySE107]

The metal gaskets don't have the guides, which aren't even needed. Tear it apart and put the metal gaskets in for your year (980004T). I think thats the right number of zeros.

You did keep the stock guide plates on the heads right? If the pushrods are in the right spot and the stock guide plates are there, you shouldn't have a noise. If the gaskets were wrong, the tab for the middle port wouldn't be right.

[tractorman]

You're pretty close on that number, Sappy. The Felpro number he needs, including the correct number of zeros is MS98004T. This set will work for either ball and pivot rockers or roller rockers (so long as it's a pre-2000 engine). These metal/rubber gaskets are a vast improvement over the original plastic ones, and IMO, are also better than the new "improved" GM gaskets (which are still plastic).

But the opening post here has me confused. Shouldn't ALL 1996 3100 engines have roller rockers?

I don't know what the effect of running the plastic gaskets with pushrod guides in an engine with non-roller rockers would be... maybe some of the pushrods are misaligning and binding up?

It'll be a lot of trouble, but you might do well to go with the MS98004t set.

[1meanz]

early 3100 heads could have either, i have a set of 95 heads with ball and pivot
try running some seafoam in the oil and then changing it and using some lucas oil stabalizer gfs z done the same thing with the 3.1, and that fixed it. must have been the lifters