Pull the valve covers and check for mushy lifters. It's perimeter bolt so probably hydraulic. Sounds like a fairly rowdy camshaft though so could be solid lifter? If you don't know you better check.....

if you find nothing then cut open the oil filter and check for metal. Going to be loose valve train or rod bearing I should think.

GD

 

 

There is something missing from your picture - OIL.
Did you wipe the heads clean before that picture?
I can't believe your heads would drain that clean on their own.
If you are not getting a decent amount of oil while running, then you already have bigger problems than a tick / knock.

 

 

 

Use a piece of cardboard to lessen the oil going everywhere with the valve cover off.
Stick one end of a piece of vacuum hose 18-24" long in your ear and move the other end along the valvetrain with the engine running at idle.
If there is a tick, you will be able to isolate it.

 

Well a solid lifter valve train would have a little play. But we're talking about .010" give or take 50% of that.

Someone that knows the difference could tell by pulling a pushrod and looking at the lifters with a bore scope or even a penlight. I'm concerned that you may not be able to do that though.

If you can push down on the pushrod side of the rockers - they should have very little play. If you can move them significantly by hand then the lifter is deflated. Which it should not be.... and that would be a likely candidate for your noise.

Given the series of events and how dry it is under those valve covers.... I would sacrifice the oil filter anyway and check for metal.

 

 

Bearing material would not be magnetic. It's good that it didn't appear metallic though. Still I would cut the filter. They are cheap.

You should check that each push rod spins freely when the valve is unloaded - if not they may be bent. The pre-load should already be set unless the locks backed off the rockers. The bigger question if not is why did the lifters deflate? You can try setting the lash with it running. It looks dry in there as we previously noted - seems too dry for an engine that has run. The oil doesn't really drain from the outer edges of the heads - usually there is some pooling. Makes me think enough oil isn't getting to the lifters.

 

 

Well - oil pressure for sure. But what you said about the pressure reading seems normal if not even a little high. I would just run it with the covers off and it should make a pretty decent mess. You can try to contain it but it's going to get flung around. If you have looseness it could be some of those rockers are worn due to insufficient oil delivery, or collapsed lifters.... or both. Not having any oil to the valve train is pretty serious and would be reason enough to do at least a top-end tear down and try to determine the cause.

GD

 

If you do get to the point of having to remove a lifter to see if it is a HYD or SOLID, I can tell you how to do it
WITHOUT REMOVING THE INTAKE MANIFOLD.
In either case, you should have oil filling each and every rocker arm within 30 seconds of starting the engine.

 

 

The side to side play like that is normal when the rockers are unloaded. If you can't push down on any of the rockers on the pushrod side then the lifters aren't deflated and the pushrods aren't bent.

Cut the oil filter.

 

 

 

Crank, Cam - doesn't matter much at that point. The engine has to be torn completely down and hot-tanked to get all that out of it and the source will be quite obviously when you find it. Likely it's a rod bearing based on the noise, and the metallic bits are either bearing insert backing material, rod material, or crank material. It probably goes without saying, but don't run it anymore - it will just cause further damage.

I guess you could pull the pan and check the rod caps, or pull the intake and check out the lifters. Could be a camshaft going flat also.....

IMHO though you don't have a choice but to pull it and completely rebuild it. With that much metal - it would be a total gamble and probably a complete waste of time to take any short cuts. Or just throw a crate motor in there.

GD

 

Me being straight to the point for once.......that really SUCKS!!!! While I'm running essentially a completely stock motor, I'm getting tons of perceived knock also. I hope to God I don't end up with the same problem you have. Good luck.......

 

 

No problem. And yeah that sucks. Sorry about the luck. Please update us with the tear-down pics. While we all hate a train wreck..... we can't look away either.

GD

 

Teardown. Sorry man.