HI all. A few weeks ago the 442 - 455 developed a tick - sounded like a sticky lifter on number 2. After further inspection to eliminate other possibilities (such as a broken spring, sticky valve, etc) I decided that it must be: A: Sticky Lifter B: Bent pushrod, C: Sticky/noisy rocker arm, or D: Bad Cam Lobe. (it has a performance cam with a pretty good lope, although I do not have the specifics)

I decided to replace the lifters, and then of course while I'm in there I might as well replace the pushrods and rockers as well. So I did. I looked at the cam as best I could but did not see anything obvious. Of course, I could only see one side of the cam without rotating the engine, so who knows. I was also forced to buy a new intake, as nearly everything I touched on the old Edelborck Torqer intake was stripped. (That is a whole 'nother discussion - I don't know who worked on this in the past, but whoa boy what a mess - RTV EVERYWHERE - Including the intake ports, stripped carb mounts, alternator mounts, a spring attached to the old unused water temp sensor because the carb return spring was just not strong enough, the list goes on)


Anyway, I put the engine back together, and it fired up just fine, but the tick is still there. Tick tick tick. Much softer at idle - almost gone, but definitely there. Pretty loud at normal speeds, but not a knock - a tick - albeit a pretty pronounced tick. So, my next step is to replace the cam, but I thought I'd get some other opinions before I do, as that's a pretty big job, and I am considering just scrapping the whole thing and buying an engine from Mondello - "Gasp" you say - maybe it's just my frustration showing after spending the last two weekends working on this only to have the same problem I started with, but $600 poorer with sore fingers. Thanks for your opinions.

 

Did all rockers tighten down the same? In other words did they all have preload on them?

 

Try Pulling the dipstick out a little bit, Might be hitting the crank.

 

All rockers tourqed to 25lb, preload very consistent at around .050 on each with #7 exhaust varying by -.020. All are within spec according to my nifty pushrod checker.

 

I'll certainly check it out, but I think this noise is closer to the top end, and developed rather suddenly.

 

Are you sure its not an exhaust tick. Small exhaust leaks often sound like a ticking of metal together. Especially if it gets louder the more load is on the engine.

 

I seem to hear this pretty regularly, and I'm sensitive to this issue since the original 455 in my '72 442 ticks like it has solid lifters.

A prior owner had it built by Mondello in Los Angeles in 1992 or so, and it had Rhoads lifters and an RV cam in it until recently. I always assumed it was the bleed-down lifters causing the noise, but last summer the cam, lifters and pushrods were all replaced by a very experienced CO member (I watched and learned), but it sounds almost exactly the same. (Runs a whole lot stronger though!) I'd love to know what's causing the noise for sure, but I'm not losing sleep over it anymore.

Terry

 

Being sure would be a stretch, but I've looked at the exhaust manifold on the even side, and I don't spot anything obvious. What's the best way to check?

 

With the engine running SLOWLY pour some ATF into the carb. Give it a few seconds and it will start to smoke revealing any leaks.

 

That's a good way, the neibors may not like it tho.

 

I'll give that a shot and let you know, Thanks for the advice.

 

Lifters generally will tick due to not enough oil pressure, preload, or worn lobes on the cam. If it's not your exhaust manifold then I'd go back to looking at pushrod length.

 

Pushrod length was carefully checked when lifter, pushrods and rocker arms were replaced so I'm pretty confident that the lengths and preloads are correct. I just ordered a cam lobe checker from Summit which should tell the tale. It's gonna be a few days or a week before I get time to take the intake off AGAIN, but I will come back and let you all know what I find. Thanks for your thoughts and advice.

 

BTW - i was looking through some of the old paperwork that came with the car. The engine was rebuilt in 2010, and the cam is a Lunati 10420503. At least I know what I have now, and that will make choosing a replacement cam a littel easier. I'll just go with the same Lunati.

 

I just found this video on you tube, which - in the last 20 seconds of the video discusses a way to determine if you've eaten a cam lobe. Basically, you are observing whether the pushrod is spinning when you turn the engine over. What do you guys think about this? A valid method?