I just installed my new XE 262 with the XE supplied lifters.

Now the intake rocker on #8 is ticking bad, and doesnt seem to be moving as much as all the other rockers.

Its either a collapsed lifter, or I ground the lobe off the cam right?

im guessing lifter, cause if it was the CAM it wouldnt tick it would just take up the slack in the valvetrain and keep going. right?

Im about to pull the intake and replace my brand new lifters with sealed power lifters. any thoughts before I do it?

 

Your presumption seems sound. If the cam lobe is wiped out, the lifter and valve train probably wouldn't make abnormal noises. If the oil pressure is normal,and you soaked the lifters to fill them before installation, you may have a bad one. Make sure there is no push rod interference and the rocker arm isn't binding on the stud.

 

have you tried re-adjusting the rocker?

 

<b>Make sure there is no push rod interference and the rocker arm isn't binding on the stud.</b>

Check and double check.

<b>have you tried re-adjusting the rocker?</b>

Triple check.


I've also noticed when i give it throttle with the valve cover off...
4 things happen:

#1 oil goes everywhere.
#2 that particular pushrod doesnt spray as much oil as the rest
#3 oil gets everywhere
#4 the engine smokes for 4 minutes to get the oil off

 

:sillylol: your car is the neverending money pit what kinda blower are you putting in next?

 

That just happened to me on my 79 Trans Am. Ticking sounded like an exhaust leak so i replaced the gaskets on the headers, because the motor was new within 1500 miles. But the noise didn't go away. Not loud enough for a main bearing or rod. Anyways i think the worse pull the motor out and found that half of the cam lobe came off.

 

Ok I just checked it with a Dial Indicator (from a cam degree kit)

and its about .150 LIFT SHORT.

Yeah, the cam lobe is gone. imma pull it out. getting it replaced through Jegs. they agreed to exchange it for me.


now i get to spend about 13 hours swapping cams. yay.

 

This time get a brake cylinder hone and hone the lifter bores
just a little. Wash the grit down thouroughly with brake
cleaner. Then change the oil and filter before starting it.

Glazed lifter bores or even a scratched lifter bore often
stops a lifter from spinning. If the lifter cannot spin during breakin the cam/ lifter will fail.
Giving the lifter bores a little hone to clean 'em up
during a cam/ lifter change really helps a lot to ensure
sucessful cam breakin.

Try it....

 

ok. I pulled it out. (2 hours later) im getting good at this.

that lobe is completelly gone. its almost round. you could almost mistake it for a journal if it wasnt so small...

its smaller than the lobes on my roller L03 cam. hehe.


ah well. soon i will have another one.

I did lightly hone the lifter bores when the engine was on a stand.
im pretty sure the lifter was spinning because I noted the PUSHROD was spinning even with a screwed over lobe. they all were.

anyways, now i wait, ill probably go back to a blower when i get the cam back. I've been dying to see what it does with the smaller cam anyways.

 

That's a rare one. You might want to check the lifter clearances when you reassemble, even though I see you've already honed the bores. You don't suppose you might have had some debris in the lube system or oil gallery that stuck the lifter in place?

Maybe a set of break in springs? That's generally not necessary with a street grind, but if you have really stout springs, you might have ground the lifter through the face of the lob. Still, it's odd that only one would do that.

 

I had the same exact problem, down to the T. Same cam, wore off a lobe on the 8th cylinder.

 

well heres what I think happened. the lifter was obviouselly collapsed, but i think it was collapsed from BEFORE i put it in. that means that the plunger was all the way down even with oil in it, where it should have been up.

this means, and explains, when i tighted down the rocker adjusting nut, the plunger would fall all the way to the bottom in the lifter. that means there was no hydraulic "space" for the oil to take up slack, and consequently, the rocker put alot more pressure on the cam when the oil DID flow through it.

thats my theory.

I noticed when i pre-set the lash, that particular rocker was very very hard to turn after .000 lash. when the pushrod stopped spinning, the rocker adjust nut became very hard to turn. all the others turned by hand.

Added:
<b>Is it true that a valve that isnt opening enough or isnt opening at ALL can cause the valve to warp or burn? </b>
I put about 100 miles on my cam with the rocker barelly moving. do i have to worry about getting a new valve?

 

I've had a couple of valve springs break on me, and niether was bad enough to require a new valve. One was on a hyd cam and the other a solid.

I did get lucky, IMO. They were both exhaust springs which left the exhaust valves open. If either would have been the intake, I can see where the increased heat trapped in the cylinder would reek havoc with everything in there.

 

i'm sorry to hear dude....... to me adjusting lash on hydraulic cams is the most difficult thing to do in a small block chevy...... too tight and your screwed, to loose and tick tick tick...... it takes some experiance to get it just right the first time.....

i had to adjust mine twice on the passenger side....... i had one that just wouldn't pump up no matter what we did... so i adjusted all of them on that side to make sure....... from what i can tell it's good but when ya haven't had a chance for exhaust work it kinda makes it hard to hear anything...... especially without mufflers....

good luck and i hope it works out for ya.....

 

Ouch! Sorry to hear about that. Pain in the butt, for sure.

If the lifter collpases it will make noise, but won't usually wipe the cam lobe.

I have found some "bad" lifters out of the box from time to time. I take an old pushrod and push the plunger in the lifter in and out a few times to make sure it moves freely. If it doesn't I usually find either RUST or tiny METAL FILINGS inside the pluger upon disassembly. I have no idea how this happens but I have seen it enough I always do this simple check now. I once found HALF the lifters in a set of 16 that were bad!