Weird sound in my 440

put the timing marks on TDC w the rotor on the #1 plug wire and take off the dr rocker arm. (Undo the center bolt a quarter turn then the one to the left (front) a quarter turn then the bolt on the other (rear) side of the center bolt a quarter turn then the front bolt a quarter turn then the rear bolt a quarter turn then back to the center bolt & repeat so the shaft is not cocked but come straight up). Make a mark on the 2 pushrods in relation to the valve cover rail so you can easily refer to it then retorque everything back down a quarter turn at a time starting at the center bolt then near right then near left then far right then far left then center. A piece of welding rod works good to hold the pushrods in line. When down all the way/torqued to spec make a new mark on the p rods & see how far they have traveled down into the lifter. If the preload is making the cup on occaision contacting the lifter body that'll make a racket. Not sure offhand how much is OK but I think at least..020-.030"? is enough but post what you get. Not sure on the chipped cam/lifters & you'd think that blatant damage would make a full time noise but w lifters rotating I am not sure but I'm concerned at that (amt of) destruction. I had a 80's hyd cam slant 6 & it had a horrendous lifter noise that would come and go (good psi) just like your descrip. I continued to run it & no probs (you cant kill a slant 6 even if you tried) and I saw one at the Nebraska state fair run wo oil & no blow (after the snake oil salesman put his panther pi$$ into it)

thanks for the help Robert, it will probaly take me awhile to do this, i am trying to finish up the restoration and i guess i will get back to this motor problem, will it hurt to continue to crank the motor every 2 weeks till i finish the restoration?

Had a racket like that in one of my 440s, and it turned out to be the rockers hitting the stock valve cover baffles, and the rocker shaft hold-downs transferring noise (and small dents) into the valve covers after I'd re-tightened them. Quick check is to let the thing idle and tighten/loosen the valve cover bolts, assuming you have a similar setup.
When you pull the covers, look for little gouges or dents in the baffles. The hold-downs on mine were square and I ended up filing chamfers at the outside corners of the front & rear ones. A few whacks to the baffles with a punch (protecting the outside of the covers), and no more contact or noise.

I'd be patient & let the eng be until you can get back to it & get some ans. Like me you have plenty of other stuff to deal w. Holler when you can w what you find out & we'll continue onward

yep,gotta love hack-job,uninformed mechanics. i had a 318 a while back,when i got it,guy said it was nice and quiet running around town,but,after 30-45 minutes on the highway (55-60mph) it developed a belt squeak. said he replaced the belts,and altenator twice. after buying the car,and a few more conversations with the PO,he said that he and his son replaced the valve stem seals due to some early morning smoke on start-up. after i pulled the valve covers,found the goofballs spun the rockershafts around during reassembly,and had the oil holes in the shafts pointing up!!!!! that belt squeak was the front 2 rocker arms chirping on the shaft. i spun them back around,and she was quiet from then on. goober asked if i ever fixed the "belt squeak".....

Ever hear a rod bolt tapping on the windage tray? It will only do it at idle or low rpm's.Sounds just like a rod knock.

i put my hands on the vc when the noise was happening and i could not feel any vibrations on the vc, sound i be able to feel this on the vc?

hey Bill , you may be on to something, my motor does have a windage tray, and i did drop the oil pan to fix a rear main seal leak, and to come to think of it, this noise did not start till after i fixed the rear main seal, do you think that i may not have put the windage try back on correctly?

i know what you mean about this, alot of people do things to their cars no knowing what the end result is going to be, what is so bad, i really do not know alot and i have to research and hunt down what the problem is, i am glad we have moparts.com and have alot of good people helping us to hunt down the problems,
thanks for the input

looks like i will not have a windage tray either, i really do not want to pull the oil pan right now, will this problem hurt anything? it has only happened about 3times in 3.5years and only lasted about 5mins each time
Randy

thanks for all the help!!! once i get it all figured out i will post the results