Bad Valvetrain noise.....Need help

[Jacksboys]

My father just refreshed his 360 motor with a Lunati cam/lifters, rebuilt '974 heads with 2.02/1.60, and used his stock pushrods and rockers.

When we were breaking in the cam, we had Castrol 10w-30 with the GM EOS added.  The break in seem to go well and never had a problem. The next day he cranked it up and it sounded like one of the lifters was ticking like it had leaked down.  After a few seconds it went away.  The next day it sounded worse and took even longer to go away.
So he decided to change the oil to Rotella 15w-40, and the next time he cranked it, it took about ten minutes for the ticking noise to go away.   

That is when he called me to come over and see if I could tell if something was off.

When we took a valve cover off, and he turned the engine over a few times, all of the rockers were moving evenly so we ruled out a bad lobe on the cam.

He also mentioned that the rocker shafts could come off without much tension, which this got me thinking.  So I started messing with the rockers and found out that a few of them had slight clearance and could be rocked back and forth.  I know this is not suppose to happen, so we are both concerned now.

The rockers and pushrods may have 5000 miles on them, could they be bad this quickly?
Would the Lunati cam be this far off on the size of its lobes?
Any ideas what could have caused this?

He loses sleep over things like this, so I would like to help solve this quickly.

Thanks in advance.

[Chryco Psycho]

You probably have a bad batch of lifters & they are not holding pressure & bleeding down
the lifters can be replaced without removing the intake using a telescoping magnet & a long screw driver   , maekSure you check the bottom of each lifter as it is removed to be sure the cam is ok , I have wiped a cam during the initial break in  before so with 5000 miles it is possible

[Jacksboys]

You probably have a bad batch of lifters & they are not holding pressure & bleeding down
the lifters can be replaced without removing the intake using a telescoping magnet & a long screw driver   , maekSure you check the bottom of each lifter as it is removed to be sure the cam is ok , I have wiped a cam during the initial break in  before so with 5000 miles it is possible

He said that he is willing to remove the intake because he use the metal gaskets there, so that is not a problem.
The cam does not have any miles on it, just the pushrods and rockers. 

How fast should it take for a standard lifter to bleed down?
Can we use just a standard mopar lifter, or do we need to use the Lunati brand lifters?  (220*/226*--.475"/.494")

[Chryco Psycho]

there only 2 brands of lifters left no matter what package they come in , Johnson or Standadyne
 I would get them from 440 Source , they have the better Johnson lifters & good pricing , they can go bad immediatly or be bad out of the box 

[Jacksboys]

Thanks for the info.

Would I need the standard or the early style?

[Jacksboys]

Never mind, I did not read it correctly

[Chryco Psycho]

LA engines should use the standard style

[moper]

Why is he running the steel gaskets? All 360s should have the fiber larger port gaskets from what I think I know...lol.

But aside from that...if the shafts and rockers were replaced, it is possible they wore..but I doubt it. I would think it's a lifter issue too. I use lifters made by whoever makes the cam. For me, it's just always the way I've done things. I would suggest you pull the intake, and leave the rockers and pushrods in place. Pull all the spark plugs, and then turn the engine with the starter (jump the relay..dont use the key...) You should be able to see all the lifters rotating as the enigne turns over. If one isnt. You have a cam going bad, whether the lifter looks good or not. The next question is is the lifter not spinning because the bore is too tight? Or because the lifter is not made right?

[Chryco Psycho]

or the cam lobe was not cut properly to rotate the lifter , if he can push the rocker down [pushrod side ]after running the engine the lifters HAVE to be bleeding down
They do make the steel intake gaskets for the 360 heads as well with the large port openings

[Jacksboys]

Well we decided to remove the lifters and found 2 of them will still compress under a slight load with my finger  This sucks.

So he is going to buy another set of lifters and try them with a set of Crane adjustable rockers that I had sitting on my shelf. 

The only problem with the Crane rockers is that they barely hit the retainer on the springs.  Would it be ok to just slightly notch the rockers maybe 10 to 20 thousandths, so that they clear the springs?

[Chryco Psycho]

that is typical , the rockers often need to be clearanced to clear the retainer on small blocks , , i would use a die grinder with a ball shaped cutter to clearance them so there is no 90* cut to start a stress crack

[vinb]

If you didn't buy your rocker arms yet, look into Comp Cams #1322 pro magnums. A little piecey but I have them and do not have any problems...I would buy them again if I had another engine....

[Oldschool]

If you didn't buy your rocker arms yet, look into Comp Cams #1322 pro magnums. A little piecey but I have them and do not have any problems...I would buy them again if I had another engine....

    Use the aftermarket rockers before you clearance the old ones.   Also, is the oil pressure up to par on this engine, and are you certain it is getting to the lifters and valvetrain like it should?      

[Jacksboys]

Thanks Chryco for the info on clearancing the rockers....but...

More bad news:
Well the rockers I had are the 1.6 version which caused the pushrods to hit the head, so we are not going to use those either.

If you didn't buy your rocker arms yet, look into Comp Cams #1322 pro magnums. A little piecey but I have them and do not have any problems...I would buy them again if I had another engine....

I did suggest the Comp rockers to him, but he does not want to spend the money.

   Use the aftermarket rockers before you clearance the old ones.   Also, is the oil pressure up to par on this engine, and are you certain it is getting to the lifters and valvetrain like it should?      

We are sure the oil is getting there and the oil pressure is very good, no problems there. 


I did call Lunati and they mentioned that we are suppose to take apart and clean the brand new lifters before we put them in the motor.    Neither my father nor I have ever heard of this.  Are you really suppose to do that?

By the way, what is suppose to be the stock length for the pushrod on the non-adjustable rockers?

[Chryco Psycho]

I can`t remember the pushrod length , 7.25 comes to mind , I can find out
 Never heard of disassembling a lifter before installing it before