Sorry about the sound quality its recorded on my phone, Not sure if you can tell from the video but any ideas what the knocking/ticking/w/e is from or does any links here. I don't know much about cars and I'm still learning. Im not sure at all but it kinda sounds louder in the cylinder head area and not lower though I could be wrong.
Thanks again, Appreciate anyone who takes the time to help.


Pretty gunky and old oil, Not sure if this says anything :X

 

One of the rocker arm(Is it?) was so loose to the touch i could wobble it all around....

I'm pretty sure thats not good would just tighting it up be a bad idea?

 

Sounds like a loose rocker in the video, plus at least 1 weak/dead cylinder - might be related. Sorry to say, motor looks & sounds in pretty bad shape generally.

When set correctly, rockers that aren't currently holding a valve open can be wiggled by hand, but shouldn't be flopping about.

Just cranking on the rocker nut till it's tight would be a bad idea. However, setting it to the correct lash along with the other 15 would be a great idea. Use the forums search to find out how, there are several different methods.

 

Is there a way to check for a dead cylinder, I know the timings off and carb screws are just turned every which way and I may have a exhaust leak from the exhaust manifold?
I don't really have a ton of money and access to a garage with tools. Can you replace the cylinders with out taking the engine out? Its all part of the cylinder heads right. Sorry I'm a big noob :P

 

Also 2 of the spark plug wires are burnt again and 2 of the spark plugs are old as hell and dark colored and the oil is as about as old/dirty as you can get... I'll try to figure out how to set the valve lash and do that see if it sounds better....
I gotta find a place to work on it, I took a valve cover off here at the apartment and a guy hand delivered a letter saying if I was seen working on my car again Id get my car towed and a fine.

Do you think it would be a bad idea if I have limited car knowledge to try to set the valve lash? I don't wanna make things worse but at the same time I can follow directions well :P

 

Heh sounds like a real 'project'

Wires and plugs are a no-brainer, as is an oil + filter change.

Mechanically, since you seem to have at least one mal-adjusted rocker, I would look start there. That loose one you mentioned may not be allowing that cylinder to either fill or empty properly (depending on whether it's an intake or exhaust valve), depending on how loose it is.

That ticking you hear is the valvetrain getting a pounding, get it set properly before something bends or breaks.

Cylinders are not separately removable, that's what the block is. 8 cylinders and a bed for the crank, all cast together in one unit. The heads are separate castings which 'cap off' the tops of the cylinder bores, while the pistons in the block 'cap off' the bottom of the bores. This creates a sealed, variable volume space where combustion can occur.

You've got a whole lot of really dirty work to do. If you are in a strata living situation and are already getting flak, you might need to move it elsewhere to get this stuff done esp if you are learning from scratch.

 

Yea I changed the wires and the lady gave me the wrong plug wires so half of them were 2 short and the engine is already a wiring hell i dont think anything is tied down, but I stuck heat resistant tape crap on the wires for now but it fell offf on 2 of em and burnt em, Ah thanks for explaining the it that way now it makes sense and makes what I asked idiotic doh!, Yea the all the other rockers were like wiggling but I could rock the one side to side I didnt check under the valve cover (Which reminds me is the oil sopossed to drain out?) cause the right one was almost dry and the left(passenger) was filled way high up even after sitting for awhile.

I really appreciate the advice and help man, I get morer help from people like you on here then all the guys I know that know about cars, Its the same old I wanna help and then you get ahold of em and there busy and eventually run ya around.

Edit: What did you mean by set the valvetrain, You mean by setting the valve lash?

 

Yep, set the lash. Don't know what you've got there, but I would assume it's the usual hydraulic lifter setup, which requires around 1/2 - 1 turn of preload past the lash point for each rocker. Won't go into how to do it here, there are a million previous threads available for the searching.

Yep, the oil is supposed to drain out of the valve covers, thru passages at either end of the head, or out the pushrod holes. They certainly shouldn't be filled up like a bathtub. Looks like you've got some sludge issues.

Don't ever feel bad for asking the simple questions, or ever stop asking them - only way to learn! Do your research before ripping into anything you don't know, and you'll be way ahead of most of the hackers out there.

 

remember when u tighten your rockers do it when the engine is running
i dont tknow the exact amount ot tighten them but if u do it while the engine is off the lifters cllapse and cause other issues

 

Not correct. You can do it engine stopped, or running. So long as the lifter pre-load ends up right enough, either way is good. I've never actually tried it running, myself.

 

Yeah OK so valve lash for now and anyone have an tips on draining I cleaning sludge found a hole like thing near the front before all the rocker arms and cleaned all the sludge out not sure if it drained hole though. Thanks again Tree50. I'll prolly try to do it today.

 

all advice that you have received is good, but you really need to find a place to work.

Your biggest issue is probably the overall condition of this engine, which doesn't look promising. The sludge buildup indicates a lack of proper maintenance (oil changes). The fouled plugs could mean a number of different things, and could be related to the improper valve lash and/or the bad plug wires.

But back to basics. If the car drives well enough, I'd find a place to work on it and make sure the oil drain holes in the heads are not clogged. I'd be a little leery of using any kind of motor flush, because sometimes it causes problems. Change the oil after you clear the drains, and then adjust valve lash.

Then I would install fresh plugs and a good set of wires, tying them out of the way of any hot surfaces. After that, you will have a better idea of what you have. If the car drives well, I would do a series of short-mileage oil changes until the oil stays relatively clean.

If money is tight, and the car runs well, I'd leave it alone at that point, making sure to change the oil and filter frequently.

Of course, if the oil was not changed often enough, and the picture seems to indicate that, you may be looking at an engine rebuild, which is very costly and time consuming, and requires advanced skills and tools.

 

Yeah it drives no problems or anything, Just that tick. (Well I'm sure its seen better days but no stalling or over heating or low power or anything)

 

Then hopefully the valve lash adjustment will fix that.

The rest of my recommendation will help you keep it running well for as long as possible.

 

This loose rocker arm happened to me once and it turned out to be a bent push rod once I changed that and adjusted that lash it was fine.

 

Well I opened the valve cover and checked the rocker arms and most had a tad wiggle, But one I could wiggle at least 3x times more, Is the push rod just something you take right out put right back on? I don't wanna mess anything up.

I found a few posts about setting the valve lash, But I didn't find any threads specifically wrote for that purpose.

 

Adjusted the lash and the last rocker arm at the end after some tighting stoped ticking.

No tick now, I unclogged the oil holes, Seems to sound fine now.

Um.... I still need to fix my timing and set the carb screws to the right thing? and oil change and new plug wires and see how it sounds.... The exhaust has a sound to it like a tick almost, Exhaust leak then?

Thanks again for the help guys, Really appreciate it. A fews ago all I could do was put gas in.

Oh yea and I still have the oil spraying outta the intake manifold when I rev....

Could be missing screws... no idea.

 

Great to hear you've made some progress! There should be bolts in those holes holding the intake down; open like that - the oil is free to come out of the lifter valley. Probably causing intake sealing issues as well.

 

I am concerned about that last rocker arm. I don't know if this is true for later SBC's, but the original Gen I motor had a common issue with wiping out the cam lobe on the last cylinder. This resulted in increased pressure on the valve, which had to push against cylinder pressure that was not being relieved because the exhaust valve was not opening far enough. This in turn caused the valve to push back against the rocker arm, and since there was nowhere for it to go, it started to press the rocker arm stud out of its hole (they were pressed in) Tightening the valve lash cured the problem in my old Vette temporarily, but as the stud got pushed out some more, I got the tick back. That's when I noticed that the stud was higher than the others and realized that it was being pushed out. I ended up having to replace the camshaft.

 

I guess will see, As long as its working fine for now I'm alright... I need to fix my power steering and alot of little small stuff. But I can't figure how to fix it.

 

Hey dude I was were u are now, last august. All kinds of odd engine sounds and complete mess of an engine lol. Save up like I did and tear it down and rebuild it if you like the car. If not keep learning like you are and take care of the little stuff. Good people on these boards willing to give you some sound advice.

 

Yeah, I love the car, Imo the thirdgen camaro is the best looking body style outta any car.

 

If youre looking in the valves, wipe it somewhat clean with something, then use gas and a brush and fine clean it. After you get it clean, run a little oil thru the valves to clean out what youve done(gas).

If youre talking about cleaning it with it sealed, when my intake gasket went, it mixed coolant and oil, to where i had mayonaise in my valves. Cleaned out what I could, then got the valves redone, then when the car was ready to run, put a new oil filter, 4 quarts of engine oil, and 1 quart of automatic transmission fluid(it will clean your engine like you wouldnt believe), let the car run for twenty minutes. Drain the oil and replace the oil filter again. Add 5 quarts of oil. Ready for burnouts.

I had cleaned my top end, but the oilpan may have had sludge in it still, i didnt go there. Months later come oil change, my motor almost topped off the oil filter with must have been sludge elsewhere in the system. So you may or may not see immediate results but keep up on it until you do.

Spotless. To the extent of now, I have the oil pan off due to low oil pressure, and am looking at a spic and span clean oilpan. The automatic trans fluid blew out the remains.

 

Ah sounds good I still havent had the oil change but I'm driving it atm.

I'll have around 600 bucks to spend on it here in a week, I'll do it then and figure out what else i need done.

 

expect that oil filter you take off to have some sludge in it. Make sure when you goto the store get 2x oil filters and 2x the engine oil

 

I ordered one with some other parts on summit and I got a free oil filter.