Engine Tick/Click

[Radim]

My brother and I swapped out the head on my L20B for a A87, everything went smooth but the engine has a bit of a tick that speeds up as the revs go up, the bottom-end was fine so we excluded anything wrong with that... rod knock ect...

 

The valve lash was off so i Redid it to specs (cold) the tick is not as loud but it still very noticable.

 

It does have an aftermarket cam, specs are only slightly higher than a stock L20B cam.

 

Is it normal for cammed motors to tick, and is it safe to run it like that? It runs well, but the tick is kinda annoying... Sounds like a Toyota.

[DAT510]

Is there any abnormal wear on the cam lobes?

Like ridges or something?

[Radim]

Nope, the cam looks like it was barely even used.

[I'm BLUE]

Perform a hot valve adjustment ? ( I take my time on valve adjustments because hobbyist Haha )

Make sure nothing popped off the valve train area in the process. (It happens )

Double check your work ! I have to on mine lol.

 

Pull off the valve cover and make sure you have oil sitting in the head ... If you do excellent !

If you do not see much ... a possible bigger problem is in store via oil pressure.

[Radim]

Cool, will do....

 

It has plenty of oil pressure, yanked VC off to make sure ticking was from valvetrain and not the timing chain and lowe and behold oil splooged everywhere.

[datzenmike]

Hot valve lash setting is best.

[I'm BLUE]

Cool, will do....

 

It has plenty of oil pressure, yanked VC off to make sure ticking was from valvetrain and not the timing chain and lowe and behold oil splooged everywhere.

 

Excellent .. only a matter of time :)

[datzenmike]

I've heard 720 owners say that chain noise is the Z series way of telling you that the oil needs changing.

[MikeRL411]

It happens very rarely but sometimes when you mix blocks and heads you wind up with a head gasket whose steel "O ring" is over compressed and extrudes into the bore. The piston will hit the lip and tick tick tick until it either peens flat or regretfully breaks up and scores the hell out of your cylinder walls. Check the spec hole diameter of the head gasket you used versus the real stock or overbored diameter of your block.

[Radim]

Well i changed the timing chain, ran great but it spilled out like a quart or two of oil,.... Guess oil pan gasket didn't seat well....

Also redid valve lash and it still ticks, I'm guessing it is that issue with the headgasket.

[I'm BLUE]

Could you please clarify What you meant by ... It spilled out a quart of oil or two ?

 

Check exhaust manifold gasket and collector.

Some old cast manifolds do crack and headers warp/twist (as we all are aware)

On old Chebys ... A leaker header or manifold could easily pass for a valve ticking and is quite common.

 

If you do believe it to be a head gasket issue .. than perform a leak-down or compression test to confirm before any tear apart :) .

 

Have you performed a hg job on it as of late ? (Or low miles on one)

 

I ask This ..since best place to look sometimes .. is the last place we've been around.

 

[Radim]

It literally leaked a huge puddle of oil, although that IS the oil pan gasket. :)

 

First headgasket swap that i've performed on it, but it still had some of the crosshatch on it.

 

I'll do a leakdown later today.