FWIW I was worried when I first fired this thing up. To the point where I was chasing everything. A friend stopped by and said sounds ok to me (has a lot of experience)then another told me his Ross pistons were loud as heck too, and long story short the engine had at least 40 runs on it (driven to and from the track) ran 11.30's shifting at 64-6600 and lots of street blasts when I sold it. Still running hard from what I understand.

It has been a while since I posted on this topic. I have since put about 550 miles on this motor since the refresh and the noise has been and remains there. The engine has great oil pressure, doesn't smoke and was very powerful and responsive so I was very surprised with what I saw when I did some diagnostics this last weekend.

I don't know why I never did this test until now, but regardless I did a compression test on Saturday. Not sure if it was because the engine was cooling off but I got some strange numbers. I did the test with all the plugs out but forgot to open the butterfly on the carb, not sure how much that changes things. On the drivers side bank, the cylinders were all around 155 PSI, however on the passenger side, the numbers were higher, all around 190 PSI except for #8 which was zero!!! All of the other plugs looked good, light cocoa color except for number 8 that was still brand new and shiny.

So for 550 miles I have been running on 7 cylinders, I still cant believe how well it ran like this, but with the 484 cam, I just thought the rough idle was how it was supposed to be.


I am at a loss as to what this could be, seems like it was like this from first fire. Time to pull off a valve cover, do a leak down test after I visually inspect everything. I recall everything looking normal when I last checked it, meaning the pushrods going up and down, etc but who knows for sure.

What is ironic is someone posted back in 2015 that they heard a miss in the one of the videos I posted. Very good, it certainly did have one!

Any update on this?

Not yet, the plan is to tear into it on Tuesday night as I have one of my fellow gear head buddies coming over to give me a hand.

first order of business is to perform a leakdown test then take it from there.

We put air in the cylinder and couldn't hear anything out of the carb or tailpipe, or out of the valve covers.

Used the remote starter and watched the rockers only to see the exhaust rocker move up and down on that cylinder.

Pulled the intake and lifters and one of them was toast. The cam is wasted on that lobe as well.

What is confusing to me is the noise was there from startup but I changed rockers, lifters, pushrods a few times, adjusting the valves so I don't know how I missed that rocker not moving like the others. I re used this cam from prior to the refresh, maybe it had an issue then and slowly was getting worse? This lifter is not a Mopar one that originally came with the cam. I put a set of comp cam lifters thinking that was my noise.

I'm sure the internet will explode when I just do a cam swap without pulling the motor to be hot tanked and rebuilt due to the shavings and metal. I just did the oil pan on this a few months ago and I didn't see anything concerning on the magnet.

I plan on changing the oil after the install then again after break in. I'll check the cam bearings while I have it out.

OK, I guess I'll be first in to say good luck on your cam / lifter swap. The cam bearing would be the last bearing I would look at. If your not going to pull the pan, pull the oil pump , no real cost , just a gasket and you can make that. Pull the pump apart for a inspection. That will tell you what your bearings will look like. Go from there. If it looks like rats have been chewing away at the gears you might want to pull the engine down for a review. I have got away with a cam /lifter change out and at that time I was using a double filter set up . As bad as your lifter looks your filter couldn't have caught all the metal. In the end it's your money , do as you think that is best for your wallet.

I’d cut the filter open for a look inside as well as pulling the pump apart.

Thanks guys. Agree about the filter and pump. I know I have extra gaskets lying around from prior projects.

If I can get 2 more summers out of this motor then I am happy. I am planning to have a motor built for this car in the near future.

When I had my 383 magnum rebuilt for the first time 25 years ago , I reused a Mopar 284/484 cam and lifters that I had installed the year before

Machine shop said cam and lifters looked fine , well
Lasted about a month , same situation as yours

Installed a new Mopar 284/484 cam and lifters , never took anything else apart on that new motor

25 years later , wiped out that same cam and lifters when I tapped a piston with the intake valve on my newly installed Edelbrock Heads

Long story short

432 Stroker now

Machine shop said all my bearings , crankshaft , cylinders looked good for a 25 year old motor

They did the short block , gave me all the old pistons , rods , crankshaft , bearings etc.

I took the oil pump apart this winter (This 25 year old motor had 75 psi hot at cruise and 35 psi at idle)

Inside the Melling HV oil pump it looked like someone took 60 grit sandpaper , a grinder , jack hammer you name it

I have no idea how it still rotated , it was that bad

Like I said , rest of the motor , bearings looked pretty damn decent


Replace the oil pump for piece of mind

I hate and now don't use Mopar brand Hi Po cams
You get what you pay for normally, now that Fiat, new owners, are trying to make more money by raising the prices on those cam and kits if I was you I would look at buying and using a better brand and grind camshaft
Sorry for your part failure

Thanks guys, appreciate your feedback. I do plan on pulling that pump off and will have a look in there.

Now I have to shop for a cam and lifter set. I am looking at the Lunati Voodoo series cams, I just need to give them a call and talk about which one would work best for this engine and car.


Right now, I'm leaning towards the 60303, I just want something like the Mopar 284/484 but with better street manners.

I have built a 340 and a 440 with eldlebrock heads over 10 years ago and both are still running great. I remember reading both heads required adjustable rocker arms.

That is so you can set the correct pre load or valve lash depending on what kind of cam your running.

It is rare that you can just bolt on non adjustable rockers after changing heads and cam and have the proper pre load or lash.

Pre load and lash are two different things too.

If you insist on non adjustable rockers then in most cases you have to have custom push rods which is much tougher to get right than just using adjustable rockers to get your pre load right on each lifter. Custom push rods means there all not going to be the same length.

The pre load on a hydralic cam should be set before you install the intake manifold so you can see what your doing on each lifter.

Good luck. If you wiped a cam lope than you need to take the motor out of the car and all the way apart to clean it out.

I would run something other than the Voodoo line of cams, my

This is why I refuse to build any engines with flat tappet cams. You can do everything right and still end up with a lobe/lifter failure... No thanks....

IMO everything was not done right on this build because the pre load was not set correctly or even checked. That does not make all flat tappet cams bad, IMO.

I dont recall saying that I didnt adjust the preload with my roller rockers or check it at all? It could be something else going on..

It is not like setting valve lash on a hydraulic cam. You set them once and forget about them for ever. The number of turns is different for each valve, they will not be all the same turns. And once set on a hydraulic cam you should not adjust them while the motor is running, sure way to get them wrong.

This is where I read you just bolted them on without checking pre load.

I can be 99% sure the pre load was wrong.

Also I called Edlebrock when installed my heads and was told to use 1.5 rockers. So I sold my 1.6 and got 1.5 rockers. 1.5 ensures push rod clearance and acceptable geometry for novice builders like you and me.

Both my motors have proven durable during 11 years of beating them. My 340 has been beat to heck out at Bonneville all 4 times I have had the car out just messing around. Every drive your car for miles and miles at near wide open throttle. I have and I could not hold it at wide open throttle because it would over rev. I have many hi performance miles on them and the valve pre load is good and I have never adjusted it since I built the motor. I use Crane gold rockers on both motors.

Gotcha. I didnt think you were refering to the stamped steel ones. I figured they were just torque to spec and go. Thanks for the further feedback. Ill do more hoomework before setting them again

When you setup the pre load, I have to see the lifter plunger in the top of the lifter. I make sure it is at the top and take out any play while spinning the push rod. Once I am sure there is no lash and the plunger is still at the top of the lifter against the retaining clip, then I set the pre load. Some rockers have different threads and adjusters so you can't say 1/4 or 1/2 turn is correct across all motors.

I will see how many turns it takes to gently bottom the plunger and then set my pre load accordingly. I like the plunger in the middle to the top 1/3 of the lifter, has always worked me for many hydraulic cam installs. Years ago I installed hi po cams in many local cars for friends and even as side jobs for extra work.

Then I eventually raced a top alcohol dragster where I set the valve lash before every run. I took out the push rods every night to preserve the hi dollar valve springs...hundreds of times.
There's my push rod holder for a brad hemi.

Great info! thank you