Possible Valvetrain Noise?

my car does the same thing when it is cold except it comes from the front of the passenger side valve cover. When i start it and when the idle dies down it clacks, like a slapping sound and as the engine gets hot it comeplety stops.

A lifter would slap like that? I always thought it was just the valve head making contact with the cylinder head. figured that once it once hot, all the metals expanded to where they should be. I want to know what turns out with yours.

blue92lx said:

Having a little bit of an issue here. About 2 weeks ago I heard a fairly loud 'Clacking' noise coming from the drivers side valve cover/intake manifold area. I figured it's probably a loose rocker arm, so right now it's all apart. It has SVO 1.6 RR with pedestal mounts. I rotated the engine by hand and went through each set of Rocker Arms and they didn't have any play on the valvestem/RR contact point. Questions are:

a) Should I go through, loosen them all up and redo them (using shims if necessary)? Or is it not worth it?

b) What else could be the problem?

The engine is a 302 with Edelbroch Performer heads and something similar to an E-Cam (engine was built when I bought it.) if that helps any.

Thanks.

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i have this exact same problem!! pedstal mount 1.6 RRs and a clevite cam similar to an E-cam. the first time i opened up the driver valve cover and discovered numerous bent pushrods some only slightly bent one had a nice curve to it lol. so i replaced those with ford racing hardened pushrods, the noise went away for about a week then came back after i got passed 5500 rpm once!!. me and my buddy decided it was the lifters so i replaced those, and it did the same thing....a week later the noise came back. so i thought id put my stock rockers back on and once again the SAME thing. seemed like every time i touched my rockers it made a difference. but still thought it was a lifter noise again i changed the lifters with crane lifters and i got a pedstal shim kit, i went cylinder by cylinder and bolted the rockers down and added shims until the correct preload was on the lifters. same thing, goes away and comes back again. by now im fed up with it, i havnt found any metal shavings or sign of wear and it doesnt make my car any slower so i decided to let it go, until something breaks im not pulling that dam intake off again.

one question, does it do it when its cold? mine doesnt make noise until it gets warmed up.

chobracobra said:

A lifter would slap like that? I always thought it was just the valve head making contact with the cylinder head. figured that once it once hot, all the metals expanded to where they should be. I want to know what turns out with yours.

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i also think this might be my problem, my heads were machined and bigger valves put in, maybe the machine work is to blame

I think just about all of the 5.0's have some type of valvetrain clatter. Mine does, but I'm not concerned with it. I have been going through some of the other post for this issue. I have a thought and it's just a thought. Has anyone tested their valve springs to see if they're all within tolerence of each other?

blue92lx said:

I agree with you about the valvetrain noise always being present, however, that's more of a ticking noise, this one was more of a clacking noise. If you know what I'm talking about, there's a difference.

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yeah more of a pinging, like metal hitting metal?

i revved mine past 6k the other night, seems like the noise went away again and all i have is the swooshing from the roller rockers now, and it runs smoother

Yea I would the describe the clacking sound as being unique to normal valvetrain noise.