Delayed tick in top end

[fuccillo111]

I have a fresh rebuilt sbc350. Rhodes hyd. lifters, 1.5 rollers(used) not sure brand. Anyway, at initial fire there are no ticks and the oil pressure is 40-50. But about 2 minutes later a tick developed under the valve covers. This is my garage at idle. Do the lifters work this way? The ticking follows the rpm's and I can hear it through the firewall driving as well. I've only put about 25 miles on it then changed the oil. Any ideas?

 

[pontiacgp]

do you have headers?

 

[fuccillo111]

do you have headers?

Yes I do. 1 7/8" primary, ebay stainless. Why do you ask, sir?

 

[pontiacgp]

it could be you have a pin hole in the weld or it's a gasket leak and maybe not in the valve train

 

[fuccillo111]

it could be you have a pin hole in the weld or it's a gasket leak and maybe not in the valve train

The odd thing is the noise comes on after the engine gets warm and its from both sides and consistent. I've read Rhode lifters can be noisy as well, like a solid lifter, how ever that sounds. Definitely upper valve train though. Use a hammer handle to my ear up against the valve covers and hear the tick much more after the engine is warm and hear nothing before that so that rule out fuel pump, oil pump, distributor, I think.

 

[pontiacgp]

I would try heavier oil so they don't bleed down so quick

 

[fuccillo111]

I would try heavier oil so they don't bleed down so quick

So the first oil I use was 10w30 then once I heard this sound more and changed the oil I went to 10w40 and didn't seem to change anything. Could the roller rockers need adjustment? Would they make that sound from both valve covers? Seems like a long shot unless most were out of spec. My dad did the motor work, certified mechanic amf gear head for 50 years

 

[455'ed80Regal]

Try a 20w50 oil, but i doubt that will help much. That noise would irritate the crap out of me and I would pull those noisy things out and put something else in there. That's just me,

 

[565bbchevy]

I would try readjusting the rockers while it is running and after it has fully warmed up and hopefully you thoroughly checked your used roller rockers for any issues prior to installing.

 

[crotchss]

I used to run Rhoads lifters in my circle track car back in the day to reduce the duration slightly to meet the vacuum rule. With mufflers on you could hear the lifters ticking at low RPM but once it got above maybe 2500 RPM it went away. This is the way they sound because they are bleeding off oil inside the lifter to make the cam seem smaller down low.