Saturday: Woohoo! Fired up the 360 this weekend! - it fired right up, got up to temperature, and idled along just dandy . Bit of the normal fine-tuning to dial in the idle and such, and all seems to be well. Bit of lifter chatter (maybe) on the p-side, so all is not 100% awesome, but I don't know if there is a problem or not, but it seems to run just fine, and I'm just gonna run it.

Throttle response is real nice - no where near as 'explosive' as the 4bbl was, and just like the tech at CompCams said the cam idles niiiice and smooth - ze-ro lope. I'll be running it more and more and just dial it in more and more.

No apparent leaks, exhaust is good, tranny engages, steering works - all in all a great new build start-up 👍 .

Monday: I was really hoping re-using the original lifters wasn't a bad decision, and I think I figured it out. I pulled the valve cover, and everything looked 'good' - all the rocker bolts were tight, and I could just barely spin the pushrods of the valvetrain on the base circle. So everything appeared to be 'good'. Wiped off the Fel-Pro reusable valve cover gasket and bolted it back together - total time to R&R the valve cover about 1/2 hour (Magnum engineering for the major win 👍 ). So...having not found anything obviously wrong, what else could it be.

Remembering that Hemi's are very particular about the oil they use (particularly the lifters), I re-read the owners manual and there in black n white it says the oil viscosity spec for the engine is 10w30...and I had 10w40 in it (specifically Lucas Hot Rod & Classis w/ ZDDP). I don't remember why I opted for 10W40...but I did and there it is (probably an 'old-school mentality' that thicker oil is mo'bettah - not). Now...it was a long shot, but knowing the Hemi's are picky about the oil they use I thought maybe the Magnum's are too - I know the tolerances of the hydraulic lifters are very, very precise, so what could it hurt. This morning I drained the 10w40 and poured in 10w30, regular off-the-shelf Orielly house blend (no high-zinc requirement now 👍 ), and a new filter.

I didn't really expect much of a difference, but I think I can honestly say it is running quieter 👍 . If the lifters indeed require the slightly thinner oil flowing in/around/through them...well this may just be the ideal case study. Now...I think I might have some leak(s) coming from the p-side exhaust manifold - not sure yet...but I didn't do anything to the manifold and that side is now quieter, and as such I think now I do detect some exhaust manifold leak(s), but bottom line is changing to 10w30 might just have been (and resolved) the issue. Lesson learned.

- Sam