On my 383 build I am hearing a valvetrain noise. Its a fresh build and nothing has gone according to plan thus far. I asked my builder to come out and look at things to give his opinion and he thinks I have some bad lifters but said its defenitly not in the bottom end. I bought a set of lifters off ebay for this motor that were supposed to be new and they looked used when I got them. I sent them back to Comp and they sent me another set, looked the same. They are the standard lifters from Comp #850-16. Im also running the 987 springs from Comp...are these springs too much for these lifters???

#1 and #3 header primaries were a lot cooler compared to the other 6 and some of my plugs look different from eachother (some blacker than others). After a week or so some of the lifters bled down (is this normal?) but he is thinking these lifters are crap and will solve my problems.

It also appears some of my valves were opening less than others but I can't say for sure. Its idling rough and something defenitly isn't right.
Do I likely have bad lifters?

I've been doing an 1/8th turn on my lash then another almost 1/8 when tightening the locking set screw but I think I'll try a 1/2 turn plus the extra turn to lock the set screw and hopefully the noise goes away...if not off goes the manny.

 

The lifters should be fine with those springs. That's exactly the same combo I have in my motor; springs are set up at 1.800".

Idling rough & 2 adjacent header tubes cool = very suspicious. Are you POSITIVE the plug wires are right? What does a compression test reveal?

I very seriously doubt the lifters are bad.

Yes it is normal forlifters to bleed down over a period of time when compressed. They should fill right back up within a couple of seconds of the engine starting up though.

Sometimes, all sorts of things you don't think about, can make noise. For example, in the motor I'm talking about with the 987s, the springs themselves make noise; while building it, turning it over by hand, sometimes I'd hear this strange little "ee-ee-ee-eee-kkkk" from a couple of the valves as they moved, as if the inner & outer springs were rubbing; sure enough, when the motor is running, sometimes I hear a faint ticking; more at some RPMs than others. You may find that you have something like that going on. There are an amazing number of things in the valve train that can make noise, and ALL of them will sound like a tick when the engine is running.

 

Well the header tubes were still hot but much cooler than the rest. The plug wires are on correct but I just can't figure out what this motor has against me. I mean I brought it into this world...

I forgot to add...Would bad lifters cause oil pressure problems? I'm going to plug the filter bypass which I've heard might be good for a few but right now I have 10PSI hot idle!

 

Lifters probably won't cause an oil pressure problem.

Plugging the bypass (I assume you're talking about the filter bypass) will have no effect whatsoever unless the filter is restrictive; in which case, it will LOWER the oil pressure. In NO CASE WHATSOEVER will it EVER raise the oil pressure.

If you have only 10 psi at idle, there's something wrong. Either you have WAY too much bearing clearance, or the plugs got left out of the galleries in front of the lifters, or SOMETHING. A new motor with a M-55A or similar pump, and 10W-30 oil, should have around 25-35 psi at a hot 750 RPM idle, and 50-60 hot cruising.

With low oil pressure, you have bigger issues somewhere than valve train noise. In fact, it's not impossible that the valve train noise is a SYMPTOM of the low pressure, and fixing the low pressure problem might just make it shut up.