Greetings gents,

Apologies for making my first post a question!

I've just put the top end back on my 505 stroker after it died a sorry death at the hands of the previous engine builder.

It runs a comp cam XE hydraulic roller, (new) erson lifters, (new) smiths custom pushrods (3/8" shaft), (new) full harland sharp 1.5 roller rocker kit in Indy EZ heads.

I've got a noise that sounded like a lifter but that I'm beginning to think might be a pushrod making contact with the head. The preload is set to half a turn from zero lash with 2 threads showing on the adjusters, per Harland Sharps advice. The stripe across the valve tips looks good and the shaft appears to be getting plenty of oil. (oil pressure in general is very good.)

Here's a quick video - the problem seems local to 3 or 5 pot and is especially easy to hear when I blip the gas.

Anyone had problems with clearance for 3/8 pushrods in EZ heads or think it is something different?

I'm going to pull the rockers off tonight and see if I can see any witness marks on the pushrods. Hoping I don't have to pull the heads again to clearance the holes!

Thanks!

J.

Ez heads almost always need clearancing for the intake pushrods when running Hs rockers.

There will be witness marks at or near the top of the intake pushrod tunnel if there is any contact.

When I sell those heads, I relieve that area a bit as part of my normal prep.

Makes sense, it did sound like it was on the intake side. Gah - shortest lived set of head gaskets ever! Thanks for letting me know.

Why isn't there OIL.

You might be able to back the adjusters off and sneak the pushrods out, which would give you a better view of the tunnel to see if there are witness marks or not.......... although that’s not really any easier than pulling the shaft off.

I don’t know if it’s just not showing in the video or what........ but I was wondering about that too.
The only squirt hole in a HS rocker is towards the pushrods........ but I would have expected to see some oozing out between the rockers and spacers.

Looks like the shaft is definitely getting oil - it starts pooling in the valley under the hold downs 30 seconds or so after starting. I know [censored] all about these engines though, is it supposed to be spraying out?

edit - it does ooze between the rockers and spacers too, you can't really see it in the vid.

If it doesn’t burn up pushrods....... you have enough oil.

Just don’t see any in that video.

Thanks again for the help - I'll pull the shafts tonight and look for any blueing on the pushrod cups too.

If the pushrods are rubbing they will have a witness mark on them

How much run time is on the new parts?

Very little - around 15 mins or less.

I’ll be curious to hear what you find.

Took the shaft out just now - pushrods were full of oil, no blueing / wear on the cup at all. The shaft has two identically sized and positioned oil holes top and bottom so doesn't seem like it matters which way it goes.

I'll post up pics tomorrow but there are no witness marks on the pushrods and I find it tricky to tell if there are any in the pushrod holes - the holes have been machined out and it was running 3/8 pushrods and a different brand of roller rockers previously.

Slightly worrying, there was a reddish brown deposit on the valve tips? I'm assuming the roller tips get oil through a hole in the rocker from the needle roller on the shaft?

From the adjusters, it did look like perhaps I could have dialed in more preload on the middle two cylinders where the noise is.

At the moment, I'm thinking clean the pushrod holes and mark them up with engineers blue, then put it back together, set the preload and crank it with the plugs out on the starter. That way I can pull the pushrods again and see where / if there is contact? Should also be able to double check there is good oil flow to the roller tips.

Did you have the cam grooved to oil the rockers full time?
What method are you using to set the rocker arm preload?
Last thing what brand and how old are your hydraulic roller lifters now?

Yeah that was my first thought where's the oil??

There are no feed holes at all on the valve side of a HS rocker.
Everything on that side of the rocker relies on the “oil mist” floating around under the valve cover.

Unless the lifters you have require a specific odd type of preload adjustment, I’d shoot for between 5/8-3/4 turn from zero.

delete

Good luck in tracking that noise down. One thing I found makes it easier to R & R the rocker shafts and line up the pushrods is to use a pair of 8 inch long bolts to position the rocker shafts while you line everything up. You'll have to remove them to refit your shaft studs or bolts of course.

That save me a lot of time when I was messing with my geometry and pushrod issues. I run Manton's Stage 5 - 7/16" pushrods with Custom T&D rockers on my Indy EZ's that were beautifully repaired and prepped by Fast68Plymouth. All my 3/8" pushrods were contacting the intake port casting prior to Dwayne going over them.

Other than some rocker noise you will need to fix the header exhaust leak in order to isolate the noise better every time you blip the throttle I can hear the exhaust noise.