Ok, Been messing with this for a couple of weeks. I will post the combo, What I have done and what I have been told which I dont totally think is the issue. Yes I have done plenty of searching on forums and have found lots of guessing and speculation but not a smoking gun that has fixed my problem.
Combo is Stock bottom end from a 90 car with trw forged factory pistons, E303 cam, early twisted wedge heads, Elgin 1.6 roller rockers, Crower one piece pushrods (yes the length is good and pattern on the valve looks good) Factory roller lifters, poly locks, trick flow street burner intake and factory valve covers with the baffle removed. I previously had ported and polished E7 heads machined for screw in studs and had these same rockers on them and I did have some ticking but not bad. Now it sounds like I left 4 or 5 of them loose.
I have pulled the valve covers and adjusted the rockers using several different methods, quarter turn, half turn, full turn, primed the oil pump with a drill, spun on most of my tries, I replaced a couple of lifters because I felt they were maybe a little spongy after they set overnight, I have sprayed carb cleaner down the pushrod holes to free up any sticky lfiters (yes changed the oil and filter after). Currently I have them over adjusted I believe because after the car starts to warm it barely runs so going to have to go back into it again. The guy that did the dyno tune on my car told me I needed to install oil restrictors in the block but that I might be able to get away with just a HV oil pump but I cannot imagine that everyone that installs aluminum heads and similar parts deals with this. Also when I do prime the oil pump The second rocker from the back on both sides seems to get less oil than the others. Some I see really good oil flow from and others seem week and it doesnt matter where the cam is on rotation and I did try moving lifters and rockers around and the oil flow does not follow so its definitely just the block or oil flow path doing it. But the lifters all seem nice and tight when they have oil so cant imagine thats the noise.
And before anyone asks, no its not an exhaust leak or rockers hitting the valve covers. I have verified both multiple times. Its most definitely something in the valve train and the car does start right up and idle great when its adjusted with most of the tried and true methods, just noisy as hell. Way more than I think is normal for a roller motor even with adjustable rockers with any amount of preload on the lifter. Ive been working on and building motors for myself for years and this sounds bad. I would be embarrassed to pop the hood on this thing running at any kind of meet up. Anyone run into this? Is it really needing oil restrictors because that seems like pulling the motor and going through the block. Surely everyone doesnt do this to install heads.
Combo is Stock bottom end from a 90 car with trw forged factory pistons, E303 cam, early twisted wedge heads, Elgin 1.6 roller rockers, Crower one piece pushrods (yes the length is good and pattern on the valve looks good) Factory roller lifters, poly locks, trick flow street burner intake and factory valve covers with the baffle removed. I previously had ported and polished E7 heads machined for screw in studs and had these same rockers on them and I did have some ticking but not bad. Now it sounds like I left 4 or 5 of them loose.
I have pulled the valve covers and adjusted the rockers using several different methods, quarter turn, half turn, full turn, primed the oil pump with a drill, spun on most of my tries, I replaced a couple of lifters because I felt they were maybe a little spongy after they set overnight, I have sprayed carb cleaner down the pushrod holes to free up any sticky lfiters (yes changed the oil and filter after). Currently I have them over adjusted I believe because after the car starts to warm it barely runs so going to have to go back into it again. The guy that did the dyno tune on my car told me I needed to install oil restrictors in the block but that I might be able to get away with just a HV oil pump but I cannot imagine that everyone that installs aluminum heads and similar parts deals with this. Also when I do prime the oil pump The second rocker from the back on both sides seems to get less oil than the others. Some I see really good oil flow from and others seem week and it doesnt matter where the cam is on rotation and I did try moving lifters and rockers around and the oil flow does not follow so its definitely just the block or oil flow path doing it. But the lifters all seem nice and tight when they have oil so cant imagine thats the noise.
And before anyone asks, no its not an exhaust leak or rockers hitting the valve covers. I have verified both multiple times. Its most definitely something in the valve train and the car does start right up and idle great when its adjusted with most of the tried and true methods, just noisy as hell. Way more than I think is normal for a roller motor even with adjustable rockers with any amount of preload on the lifter. Ive been working on and building motors for myself for years and this sounds bad. I would be embarrassed to pop the hood on this thing running at any kind of meet up. Anyone run into this? Is it really needing oil restrictors because that seems like pulling the motor and going through the block. Surely everyone doesnt do this to install heads.