3400 lifter issue, TCE lifter springs installed

[bob442]

i'm going to loose it, i bagged the shit out of the car today, and the noise has come back, i guess i'm going to pull the valve covers, and put my hand on the rockers and see which ones are making the noise, and if they really are whats causing me all my havic. bahh!!! now that i'm driving the car i remember having a lifter noise for the first 10 seconds of run time from a cold start, i always thought it was piston slap. sure is nice to drive th old girl though, such a great time with gobbs of power that keep pulling, i was able to manage hitting 3rd gear in a burn out, and i'm getting quite the reasponces from the exhaust tone, "sounds like a lambo, fucking sick"

[TGP37]

can you log your oil temp/pressure? Was the oil filter installed dry?

I've "burped" these cars often enough now, for friends. it seems it is common to have air in the system. Did you bleed the coolant? My 3100 has a bleeder valve above the water pump and another bleeder after the T-Stat.

I've also started a cold car with the rad cap off and have a friend tip the throttle to burp the radiator.

My overflow tank had a crack in the nipple, causing air to enter when drawn on but leaked coolant out. Over time the system lost coolant, I thought it was a head leak. But the exhaust was dry as a desert bone. So any little hairline leak after the rad cap can cause coolant loss w/o detecting it easily.


Can you get a video of the pinging sound? I'm curious.

[bob442]

i went and got a distributor cover from the wrecker and fashioned my own priming tool, and primed the oil as much as i could, i odviously couldnt get it going fast enough to pump oil up the pushrods, but i was getting air bubbles through the rockers, the noise seems to get quiet now n then, and the scanner that i have right now only tells me that my oil pressure is "OK" on data streem, i cant get a psi reading for some reason.... i'll get a video up soon, as i just removed the valve covers and i'm trying to put pressure on each rocker to see if the noise cancels out at all, i went through the front rockers with no success.

[TGP37]

A HA! Maybe the pushrod is nipping the guide plate? You did get longer rods, that may have been enough to nip the guides. It should be easy to see if the guide plate has score marks.

Or a noisy injector. I've read a screwdriver can act as a stethescope to see if the injector is the noise source.

[bob442]

No, this noise get louder with rpm, it's not a rod bearing that's for sure, as it will get quiet for a shirt period of time, I just pulled some lifters and push rods out at the wrecked, there seems to be a difference already in how stiff they are, now... Do I swap the springs? Do I put in the stock push rods? What should I do now... I don't know what the difference is in length of the custom push rods, but if it's less than .050 I'm gonna swap them, as I have alot of preload and I think that might be the big picture problem, maybe with the Valve job and heads milled I've got to much preload.


Heres another video:

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a351/bob442/?action=view&current=003-11.mp4

[bob442]

well, lets pretend this is an oiling issue, because i've put in a different set of lifters that were good, i cleaned them, put in the TCE springs, put in the STOCK push rods, and istill have the noise, ive i give the motor a good burst they get quieter, so this could/would suggest an oiling issue. i cant get a PSI readings, but what i can pick up on the scanner is "Eng Oil Press Sw-OK", but none the less, i'll go over what i recall doing, what was done on engine assembally.

On the oil pump, there was one weird short bolt that went in from the bottom, that went back in, there was the 4 10mm bolts that split the pump, there was no gasket, so it was cleaned, assemballed with alot of lube, and tourqed to spec. all my clearances for the bearings were .003" IIRC, they were well in spec.all the passages were blown out. On the timing chain cover, which is the only place i can imagine something missing, well, there was the cam thrust plate and 2 bolts. and no plugs missing... anything i could have forgotten? My pump was absolutly scratchless upon inspection.

Nothing missing here, going through my assembally pics...

[TGP37]

I'm sure your oil pump is fine. It might be worn but it should be good enough.

When I started my car last night, I had injected oil into the turbo for some lube. I had the oil feed pumping into the oil fill cap. Keeping a low idle speed I let the oil pump out the air. My point is it took a minute or so to get the air out (cooler + plumbing). Maybe the same is happening for the lifters....just dealing with some air in the system.


Plus, your engine oil needs to get up to operating temp where it's viscosity is also at operating rating. Naturally, hotter oil is thinner running. Some lifters might pump up sooner then others.

Maybe let it idle for 30 minutes, get it up to temp. After that, if all seems well, take it out for a strong WOT pull.

[bob442]

I've gotten the car hot, and done countless WOT pulls, I'm starting to wonder if maybe, just maybe the check ball spring isn't letting the check ball drop enough to pump out the air and pump in the oil, I know all of you that have done the mod, have had no problems, but I'm out of ideas, the ball seats and drops(push's down) but not that much. It's the only thing I got to go on.


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[Superdave]

put in stock lifters with the longer pushrods and see what happens.


are you sure the bearings in the rockers aren't worn out? That makes quite a bit of noise.

[TGP37]

Superdave made a good point. I spread assembly lube over the rocker bearings. Did you apply any lube or installed dryish?

[bob442]

They were soaked in oil, and only have minor side to side place, just like every 3x00 I've taken apart, it's in the lifter valley, I had someone at work go over the noise with me and came to the same conclusion of where the noise is from. I guess I'll go get another set of stock lifters or something and swap them yet again. I Lost a small stock spring from the lifters I just took apart. I got about 100km on the car in total, and about 50km on the new/used set.


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[TGP37]

yeah, seems like a good solution. Keep the ones that don't make noise as back ups.

[bob442]

So I just put a gauge on my car, for oil psi at idle I have 23-25psivand at 4000rpm I have 45-50psi, is that not with in range? Should I switch to 10w30 oil?


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[TGP37]

That seems a little high for oil that is at operating temps. Is that full on hot oil or coolish idling. I get 40-45 psi on cold start and can get as low as 7-8 psi when heating up.

[bob442]

That was warm with 5w30


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