hey everyone, i need a hand with my motor.

this thing only has maybe 6k on it since it was rebuilt.

its a 350 bored 0.040 over. has eagle 13202L rotating kit in it. comp cams kit# 08-300-8. so thats the cam and hydraulic lifters. has new intake and exhaust valves. and perf. springs. stock rockers though. i had an issue with coolant getting into my oil, so i changed it and let it run and after about 45 minutes of idling, it started making a loud ticking noise. and when you shut the car off, it clicks from the motor, i know its internal.

so today i re-did the valve lash because i didnt know if its been done by the PO. and i was checking my compression.

results are as follows:

195-#8 #7-190/200
195-#6 #5-190/200
200-#4 #3-200/210
200/210-#2 #1-210/220

and after i would stop revving to buld up the compression, the motor ticks. sounds to me like a bad lifter. but id really doubt it at only 6k???

i havnt run the car to warm it up (started once a month)in probably 6 months, so this was the first time it saw past 100* on the temp gauge.

i had popped a freeze plug over the winter, but it was a clean push and i actually reused the plug; so i'd imagine nothing cracked.

but i installed a champion 3 core rad a month back and i ran it the other day and i let it sit for roughly 30 hours, i went to take the cap off the rad and there was probably 30 pounds of pressure in the cooling system! coolant shot across the garage. that was whehn i noticed a bit of coolant in my oil.

did a pressure test and it held pressure for 45 minutes and didnt drop at all.

so my question is, do you guys think i already have a bad lifter, judging by the ticking sound? and i think my compression looks in the ball park (done on a cold motor).

opinions on this situation? suggestions?

 

Your compression looks ok assuming it was done correctly.

Ticking is bad. While the motor may only have 6k on it flat tappet cams are notorious for premature failure especially if not broken in correctly. I would check for exhaust leaks that may cause ticking like loose header bolts. Check your plug wires make sure they are not arching. Also try pulling off one spark plug wire at a time WITH INSULATED PLIERS while its running to see if the sound changes (indicating a problem in the bottom end). Lastly time to at least take off the valve covers and see what you can diagnose in the valve train.

Coolant system. You really should not have that much pressure in the system after the car has been sitting for 30 hours (unless you meant 30 mins). I would check your radiator cap for starters.

The water in the oil should be checked out for sure though. Maybe a bad head gasket or an intake manifold leak but this should be fixed first.

 

i know the ticking is not exhaust related or ignition related because it did it after each time i would crank the engine for the comression test. it is not a fast tick like----- its more like a tick-break-tick-break-tick. maybe like a nock. for instance, a screw driver handle hitting a rim.

this is brank new champion rad, 3 core aluminum, came with a cap. im thinking cap is defective, and yes i meant 30 HOURS.

it was just a small amount of water, maybe a quart or so. i changed the oil and ran the motor and there isnt any coolant in it now.

compression was checked with all plugs removed, the tb open and air filter off. headers removed as well

when i was doing the valve lash, and i would spin the push rod to check the resistance on it, i could feel the lifter clicking a bit on a few of them. that is what leads me to the possibility of a lifter problem. but youre saying the cam itself may be bad?

 

I don't understand, it happens after you crank for the compression test?

 

it happens every time i shut the motor down after being run. but what surprised me was that, yes, it was doing it after i stopped cranking during the compression test.

this would have been doing so for quite some time. didnt really think anything of it until the other day when i actually let it warm up and it was making noise while running (which it never has). it was a steady tapping while running.

so when the motor is shut down it goes tap-break-tap-break-tap-break.
but when it's running its a steady tap-tap-tap-tap after warming up.

i havnt restarted it since this new tapping while running shopwed up, so i dont know if it does it while cold.

its got a high volume oil pump, and i'm running 10w-30 in it right now. pressure looked good, lower than normal

 

Could be the high volumn pump in it draining the pan then starving the the upper end another thing that would make the noise u discribe that people rarely know/check flywheel/pressure plate crackes or bolts that have loosened will give off noises that that are poorly diagnosed as internal filures

Is it water in oil or oil in water or both
Doesnt sound good either way cracked/worped head/s bad gaskets coolant systm rarely should not have more then 15-17 pressure some times more. the high pressure i would presume is coming from the cyclinders bad rad cap. i would switch the cap just to check its easy. but not bleeding off for 30 hours humm dont know what to actually say to that could have cloged passages but on a fresher rebuild hmmm speach less

 

that could be true, i just did a t56 swap, and havnt let it run that warm. i reused the flywheel , pressure plate, and clutch from the guy i bought the swap from. but it sounds like its from the engine...

well it's got 5 quarts of oil in it, and i dont think it'd need much more.

there was a bit of water in the oil. what gets me though, is that it wasnt really a whole lot of water.

i'm going to price out the stuff to do the head gaskets, and ill plan for the worst case scenario on the cam/lifters. i really didnt want to pull the motor apart until i did a head swap on it. but i guess it is what it is.

i think i'll pull the tranny first to make sure it isnt bearing related.

can anyone throw me some tips on doing the valve lash? when you spin the push rod, should it be more like its spinning in butter, or more like peanut butter?

 

I do mine like butter but with valve covers off motor running u can back them off 1 at a time till u hear ticking then tighten them down till it stops be prepared for some oil splash

 

alright, well i did the lash with the motor off, im going to put everything back together and fire it up. if the noise doesnt come back, ill be estatic. otherwise ill try doing the valve lash with the motor running. then, if it still persists, ill be doing lifters and all new gaskets...

 

just an update, the motor sounded good after i did the lash. but after i put my new exhaust on, i was getting quite a bit of water comming from my exhaust. i know it was running really rich with no o2 sensor. but i eneded pulling the intake off and the center port block offs on my gaskets were both cracked. so guess i found the problem with the coolant... doing head gaskets and new lifters while im there...

 

Mize as well knock everything out while your in there then atleast youll know its right