I have some noise on the RH side of my 440 I can't pin down.

It's a fresh engine with maybe 100 miles on it. The RH side has been making noise since the get go...and I blamed it on my Crane Alum Rockers, which are noisy. I swapped in some new Crane Ductiles and the rocker noise is down considerably, but I am still left with what appears to be valve train noise/problem on the RH side.

I have a number of things I am worried about!, but for now, can we talk about collpased lifter sound. How can I verify if I have or dont have a problem lifter or two?

I am running a new Lunati Voodoo 513/533 hyd flat tappet cam with their standard lifters (no anti-pump up style)

Don't want ot pull the intake (6 pack and it actually SEALED for me on the first try!!!) unless needed.

Any help appreciated. I am getting tired of trying to locate the source of this noise!

You can pull the valve cover and make sure all the valves are opening and closing. I'd also try the screw driver method..start it up, hold the screw driver to your ear and try to pin point the spot. work from front to rear and when it's the loudest is where you have the problem.

OK, thanks..I'll try that.

I ran the engine last night with valve cover off to try to observe the valve train, and all valves are moving (ie: no spun lobe at this point)

Now, I just need to clean up the quart of oil on the floor before going on further!!! What a mess...

Any other suggestions?

Hi,

I had and still a have more noise from the left rear of my valve train. It was much louder until I swapped to a new set of lifters,but theres still is a bit of noise which I think is normal-comparing to other 440's. I know its a pain but try like the other guy said to locate the area where its coming. Then remove the valve cover and bump the motor over(no-mess)and push on various rockers to see if one or two lifters feel spongy compared to the others.Does the noise lessen at RPM if so it may be a lifter.I have seen them(brand new) that were put together wrong and wouldnt pump up.Although rare it does happen.If your lucky and its the right lifter sometimes you can get them out without removing the intake,it all depends on the heads casting.if your still running iron heads that is.by the way nice ride!Good luck-Gary

Are you sure it's not exhaust related? How about the heat riser in the exhaust manifold rattling?

I have NOT ruled out exhaust issues...in fact...I found a hole in the weld at the headpipe to flange...I tossed some JB weld in there to give me 5 minutes to see if it would shut the noise up, but it didn't....At first, I was convinced the main noise was coming from the manifold....I am still not sure, but my gut is telling me it sounds more metallic than exhaust leak...

Right now, I can't rule out anything except the noise is NOT the rockers hitting the valve cover....the sound is similar to "that" sound by the way. I am thinking of making a video of this POS and putting it up so people could listen. I bought a 12$ stethoscope at Napa today, and will give it a try tommorow and update this post.

Now, regarding clearance and spring pressures...All was well with that area. And again, this is definately ISOLATED. The LH side of this engine sounds fine, and RH side is "one or possibly 2" locations. The engine runs/idles fairly smoothly for such a cam profile IMHO, although at times I almost think it's hitting on 7 cyls...Look, I am not sure what to expect from this cam regarding what is "normal and expected" versus "somethings wrong"!!!

I just want to eliminate the simple things first..hopefully before I drop a valve and go back to square one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKaEUm9TA_g

Have a listen.....this sound is illusive for me to say the least! Checked the pre-load today and all was well....stethoscope was no help.

Thoughts and comments?

That sounds like an exhaust leak about where the rear port of the passenger side exhaust manifold.
Could be also a leak where the head pipe connects to the right exhaust manifold.
Does not sound like valvetrain noise.

Just thinking out loud. As I was reading this thread I was thinking throughout that you should replace the lifters on that side(at least) & break the cam in again as my thinking has been influenced by several recent threads which ended up being bad lifters as the culprit but after listening to the audio it sounds different from clicking lifters I have heard in the past & sounds like rocker shaft/rocker arm contact. Keep us posted. Inquiring minds(will) want to know.

Some more info on the RH Exhaust.

This is the correct manifold for a 70-71 e-body. The heat riser assy has been removed, and I installed bolts and nuts to seal the shaft holes. This appears to still be intact. One of the mounting ear locations was cracked but it's the front-most location at the #2 cyl, and it appears to be sealed there.

The headpipes are the repop pipes available, but the car was originally a 383 and when I put the car together 5 or 6 years ago, I bought the "383" head pipes. When I put the 440 in, I called to inquire about new headpipes and was told "Oh, we sell the same pipe for both B and RB engines"...when I tried to bolt the manifold up, I was getting frame/body interference since the 440 sits up a little higher. This was on the RH side only, and required that I use a loose flange spacer and 2 headpipe to manifold gaskets. I originally assumed that this was the source of the leak, but have not been able to determine if this is indeed the issue. Again, I did find a hole in the weld on the headpipe...and JB welded it to see if that would stop the noise. The JB weld is still on there and covering the whole in the video.

I have another manifold coming in, in better shape than this one...so I intend to swap out manifolds anyway and get this flange/headpipe looked at by a quality muffler shop.

Any more comments?

I appreciate the thoughts.

Sounds to me like an exhaust manifold issue. Have you pulled each plug wire from the right bank? It may help eliminate that exhaust as part of the problem. Just my

Hope you solve it.

99.9% its an exh leak between the manifold and the head .

take the new manifold to the local engine shop you use and have them surface both the head surface and the headpipe surface , head surface at a minmum , you might have to remove the heat riser assembly to have this done .

I was going to suggest fuel pump rod untill I listend to your clip a couple of times. It really sounds like exhaust to me. Your not running gaskets right?

Mr Gasket Ultra-Seal gaskets are used.

The head pipe to manifold gaskets are typical Fel-Pro...but like I said...I am running a SPACER to get the damn pipe off the underbody....I took the spacer and RTV'd the two gaskets to it when I installed this engine last summer.

your video clip showed that you will need an engine tq strap. I'll bet you bust that drivers side mount off after just a couple of hard runs. Then the fan eats the shroud just for starters.

Man...it seems counter-intuitive to think I could get a better seal without a gasket...what about Copper gaskets? Are they saying the Mr Gasket or Fel Pro gaskets are tearing or getting crushed or something?

The engine moves around quite a bit at Idle.....with a little RPM's it smooths out.
But yeah, those rubber mounts may not last long.