Hey guys, the 331 I just build about 300miles ago has valvetrain noise like all insanity, I'm loosing my mind on this went by the truck book first time tqed them to 25ft lbs then at about 200 it started getting noisy 1 pushrod had wear on the lifter end replaced them. and whatever I do dosent help went through and did it at #1 on compression stroke and all thats way still talking, help me out before I go insane.

Thanks
Curtis

 

Is the noise down in the lifter area or up in the rocker area? (may need a stethoscope to narrow it down).

 

Well its hard to tell at about 20ft from it with the hood closed you can still hear it with the valve cover off on the drivers side its pushing oil up through the pushrods at a idle. I pulled the lifters out checked them they look fine they are pumping up. But this thing is noisy as as the exhaust sounds like a ticking time bomb up front sounds good out back .

Thanks
Curtis

 

Anybody got anything? I'm out of ideas. Help.

Thanks
Curtis

 

Not much I can help with from MA...

 

I'm not sure if this will help but I found, with my cousin's help, exhaust leaks that caused sounds I confused with valve train noise. There were emission ports on the firewall end of my 88 351w heads that we had to plug-threaded holes. Then I had the wrong base plate and gasket below the carb and had exhaust leaking there. Those problems did sound like valve noise. Hope this helps.

 

I would do my best to isolate it with a stethescope, thats how I found out where the knocking sound came from in my 302.

My 302 was knocking, just a metal to metal contact sound, changed with RPM, couldn't tell where.

Took a doctors stethescope (I don't have an automotive one), with a big screw driver. I'd touch the tip of the screwdriver on various parts around the engine, (e.g. touch the oil pan, valve cover, block, etc etc.), and touch the end of the stethescope to the handle of the screw driver. This allows you to isolate sounds, and have a MUCH clearer indication of where the sounds are coming from. For example,

When I touched it to the oil pan, all I heard was the lower assembly turning, the knock was able to be heard but it was faint. I touched the drivers side valve cover, and the knock was louder, but still faint. I touched the passanger side valve cover, and I could hear the knocking sound way louder than the other two tests, so I knew that it was in that general area. So then I got as specific as possible and touched different areas near there, trying to find where the knock sounds the loudest.

I could isolate it down to the #1 and #2 cylinder area, possibly valvetrain. So I took the valve covers off to see if I could find any loose parts or damaged parts, examined it, looked ok. Then I was pretty sure it was internal, so I tore the engine down and found that the #1 cylinder was damaged. Not sure how, but the cylinder walls had nice scrapes in 4 areas around the circle of the cylinder, and the piston skirt was all scratched up too. The piston was slapping the cylinder wall as it came up and down, and that was the knocking sound.