A lifter will not increase in loudness, and generally will become less noisy at higher rpms.

Get a length of vacuum hose. Place one end in an ear that works. Move the other end around, relatively close to the spot where you think your noise originates. Likely you will be able to point to the exact spot. I am betting a case of donut holes that you will find an exhaust leak, either a crack or a gasket gone wild.
FWIW, I don't think I ever replaced an exhaust gasket on a FE. Donuts, yes, and they are a pain to get quiet. Gotta use persuaders to get them quiet and then try to tighten them down without disturbing the quiet attained. Pieces of 2X4 or 2X2 work well as adjusters.
tom

 

It is loudest at cold idle, once warm it isn't as loud, at high RPM you can't hear it, but under load you can.

Yeah As I had said earlier I did pick up the Stethescope and oil guage. It is 106 here today so I am setting up a shade enclosure out side to work under. Freakin Hot! I will look for that leak and pull the rocker covers and do some cleaning to both sides. In an earlier post in this thread I had said that # 6 pushrod was not turning. This is another reason why I want to look at it. Also I wasn't getting good oil flow at #7 on the rocker shaft. So that is why I am going to pull it and clean. I still dont think it is a wrist pin just because of how well this engine runs and idles. IT really does sound like a exhaust leak, But if it comes to the wrist pin I will try to just fix the one and tear the engine down this winter.
I will report back with some data and some pics.

Thanks

 

If you pull the valve covers, that crossover is in plain sight.

 

Ok first last night with the covers off and before I heated it up I pulled the rocker shaft and cleaned it. Nasty gunk came out of both of them. Also soaked the lifter bores with penetrating oil but found that the extractor didn't fit the lifter correctly. Still soaked the lifter bore and got all of them moving with ease in the bores. #5 was stuck but looened up. Got all that back to gether and torqued to 40 #.

Next lit up the engine and the noise was nice and loud with the engine cold. Noticed exhaust comming out of the pushrod gap in the intake manifold at #6. As is got warm then to full temp the noise subsided to almost nothing. I retorqued the intake to head bolts to 45# some where much looser than that. At 10pm it was still over 100 and it was 108 yesterday so I gave it up and washed the sweat off.
This morning when cold I fired it up and there was the noise, exhaust gasses and as it warmed up the noise quieted down. My guess is the gasket. What do you think? Also I get a little exhaust at # 3 but much less. Even on 6 it isn't a ton of exhaust but not normal by any means. I pull the plug wire on 6 and the noise goes away almost completely. Too hot today perhaps I will yank the intake next weekend.

One last thing, I shined a flashlight into the gap at 6 and saw the (I guess it is called the "windage tray") lifted up and not seated down as it is in the other gaps. Not sure if that means anything.

 

Just a thought. My wife mentioned that this noise never showed up untill I tightned up the exhaust doghnut on the drivers side. It was leaking and making noise. The PO had the butterfly wired up. My guess was it was wired to keep it open. I pulled off the wire and sprayed the butterfly with penetrating oil several times.

If this is stuck shut where would all the exhaust gasses go? Could that have blown the cross over at the intake to head gasket? Can anyone tell me which direction to turn the butterfly to open it?

 

The weight on the end of the butterfly shaft is designed to pull the butterfly open when the engine is hot. The arm with the weight is parallel to the butterfly.
If it has been worked on, it may have been installed incorrectly, thus needing the wire to hold it open.
If you have actual exhaust gas, not blowby, coming out from under the intake manifold, then you may need a new intake, or as you suggest, new intake manifild gaskets.
I think the torque figure you used for the intake, 40ft/lb, is a bit too much. Did you get it from a manual?
tom

 

Yeah the manual said 40 to 45 pounds. Is this not right? Ill check the weight tonight. Any way if that butterfly was shut what does the backed up exhaust gasses do?

 

Whatever the manual calls for is likely fine. The backed up exhaust gases are forced to go through the ports under the intake manifold. Normally to warm it up, but if the butterfly is jammed shut... it will go through forever.
tom

 

tomw already answered, and he's correct. All the exhaust from four cylinders will be forced to go through the single small crossover, under the intake, and over to the other side. It's feasible if that's left that way too long, that it'll blow the intake manifold gasket at the crossover port.

Wire it back open and see what happens. If the ticking quiets down, I think you've found the problem. An exhaust leak.

 

curious, find the problem yet?

 

Not yet. I did yank the butterfly off and the PO had already cut out the guts so now it's just a spacer. I think the wire was to keep the weight from rattling and it finaly just rusted in place,
I have a summer break in 2 weeks and I am going to open the critter up. I have a large laundry list of taskes while there. I will post when I get in there and take some picks. I will say this that this 360 runs great except this crazy noise. No smoke even on start up and smooth. Got it starting every time now and warm up/high idle solved and real smooth. Just cant imagine a catastrophic issue.

 

if you still have the noise, a failure may be immenant, especially if it is the wrist pin bushing
you loose the rod, pin, piston and maybe more

I'd drop the pan and see or not run it until

 

Yeah I thought about that. It really sounds like a exhaust leak but I hear what your saying. I have not pulled the pan on this before how much trouble is it getting it out. I assume that I need to pull the cap off and move the rod looking for some give in the rod while the piston stays put. My guess is that there wouldn't be much give so any give is not going to be good. I might as well pull the intake and heads any way as that could be the problem area and if not and it's the wrist pin bushing I may be able to salvage something and clean the heads and intake while at it.

 

Don't remove the rod ends. Just rock the crankshaft back and forth while watching the small end of the rod.

 

mine was in a 76 highboy, and the pan came off without removing anything but the pan and oil pick-up once the pan dropped down some
I initially though mine was a rod bearing on #3 so I pulled the cap, the bearing looked new, but the rod to piston had a noticable "slop"
as I said before, just pulled one head and removed that one piston/rod, replaced the bushing and put it back together and it ran ok for several years on the farm and in the woods
btw, rebuilt the engine when it only had 30k and was 15 years old, the first 10/12 years was in a rock quarry, with probably 10 cold starts per day with only running 5 minutes or less at a time, the rings were shot, so were the valve guides and wrist pin bushings, but the inside was pristine clean, just worn out from never getting to operating temperature.
what a difference from a worn-out 360 2bbl to a 390 4bbl..........different truck