Stock 88 sport coupe with 305 tbi car.
Car is mostly stock original 53k mile car that sat for quite some time.
It runs okay what little I've ran it. I've only had it a few months and it's currently resting in my barn till the Michigan winter is gone..
After engine runs long enough to get up to operating temps it develops what sounds like a lifter tick. Has great oil pressure.
I'm thinking I'll have to tear down and replace lifters.
Should I replace with better cam while I'm in there?
I'm not a hot rodder....just a casual cruser since I'm old....sigh.

Any recommendations would be appreciated.

 

It may be worth checking lash adjustment before digging into the cam and lifters. The 1988 should be a roller cam design, and the noise might be the dog bones instead of the lifters, or possibly spring/retainer/rotator problems.

 

Ill visually inspect from top down. ...Im not sure what the dog bone is....but the sound seems low in engine.

 

Probably not a lifter, replacing lifters probably won't fix it. Could be, but not terribly likely.

Could be a destroyed rocker arm, bent push rod, a valve spring rubbing on itself, a rocker that simply slides suddenly to the side as it wipes over the valve stem tip, ... there's an AMAZINGLY long list of valvetrain-related things that "sound like" a lifter, enough that lifters get blamed for it.

Pop your VCs off. Take a piece of heater hose and STICK IT IN YOUR EAR!!! (I just LOVE telling people to do that) and listen to every component in the valve train with the other end up close. Being careful of the fan and whatnot of course. Then once you've pinpointed the source of the noise, it'll be ALOT eeeeezier to replace the part making the noise, instead of just *****-nilly buying the most expensive and invasive part, and hoping for the best.

 

You don't hear it until car warms enough for idle to drop. Faint metal tick.

 

"Dog bone" is the flat link which retains the lifters and prevents them from spinning in the bores. The dog bones seat on a machined surface in the lifter valley and are held down by leaf springs.

Also remember that a factory roller cam installation uses self-aligning rocker arms, and as the Mad Monarch of the Mattress mentioned, those might not be aligning themselves very well any more.

 

Thanks....
So if I'm.in there can I get a suggestion on better than stock cam. Or is it overkill to bother unless I upgrade heads and intake...etc

 

lt1 cam should do the trick.