Finally got my motor back together and I put in new JAM lifters and there is a bad tapping/ticking noise which is getting worse the longer I drive it. First it was barely noticeable now with all windows closed now 1k miles later it's extremely noticeable all the time. Down to the question for diagnosing, are the JAM lifters the same specs/height as OEM lifters? They deff are different in appearance but I want to put in my old oem lifters to see if the noise goes away but only have 15 oem ones and see if I could use one of the JAM lifters till I get a oem replacement? I sure would think so but just checking.
Thanks

 

could you take a video?
does the knocking/ticking happen all the time?
or just in certain situations?

Cheers, Mike

 

I'll post up a video in a minute but it is load related as in, the more load the engine is under the louder it is. So if I'm at a stop and take off it's very loud at first, then gets quieter and quieter as the load decreases since the engine isnt doing as much work. The vid shows me slightly accelerating and making the noise, slowing down and repeating it....the sound sounds like its right from under the valve cover, intake cam, loudest right around the rockers for #1 and #2 cylinders

 

Sorry for the crappy sound, it's loud in the car but the cam just doesnt pick it up good. Turn your volume up to the max and watch for when the rpm's start going up and youll hear some tapping

Sound can be heard at 11, 20, and 26 second time frames

 

I have a set of JAM lifters in mine and it also ticks pretty loud. I've had those in for about a year now and it hasnt gotten any better. It might have gottern a bit worse then when i first put them in tho. I should be receiving a set of GSC zero tick lifters on tuesday to see if those work out better

 

i'll check your vid when i get home.
does it sound like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XYrQNv6pKk

 

sounds very similar to mine
are you sure it's not bearings?
or exhaust leak?

 

Yeah it does sound like it, the sound is coming from under the valve cover/intake side, intake cam side. I don't see how it would be piston slap, at least with my engine I had it apart and it made NO noises, had the head, oil pan and pump off and did check for piston to wall clearances by rocking it back and forth and it was fine and most of all the motor only has 6k miles on it, so if it was piston slap why would it start slapping on mine after I put it back together? and normally piston slap gets quieter as it heats up, it is a common thing on some motors when you have a cast iron block with forged aluminum pistons because one warms up (changes size) quicker than the other, than once both are warm it gets quite-er

 

yup, all my symptons are exactly the same as yours.
noise coming from the intake side of the valve cover.
at first i thought it was the mivec cam gear. but you can turn on mivec (i can with my ecu) and the sound doesn't change.

I have a full 5041 GSC set (valve springs, seats and retainers) and brand new lifters to install.
This should be done within the next few weeks or so (when i can be bothered) and i will report back here.

It's good to hear i'm not the only person with this problem!

Did you check your bearings? small end, big end and/or mains?

Cheers, Mike

 

Nah I didn't check the bearings, I'm the kind of person if I saw one measely scrach or flaw which is really ok I would have stripped the entire motor down. I had even primed the oiling system before I started it while I had the timing belt off, primed it for a minute, turned the motor some, primed, turned, primed, so I knew all surfaces of the bearing/journal had a film of oil in there. So I don't see why there would be any piston slap or bearing noise, and if so I don't see why it would be coming from the valve cover for either one.

On to the most important question, can I mix one JAM lifter with an OEM one? I assume so but would like to make sure but I plan on doing it once I finish bleeding my old oem ones.

Anyone got a good trick for removing the rockers out and in with the cams still in? I've seen a few vids on youtube which helped alot but just wondering if theres anything else

 

I'm swapping out some of the lifters with my OEM ones that didnt make noise, takin the rockers out have been cake so far *knocks on wood*

Shall see if they fix it

 

good luck! please let us know how you get along

 

To answer the original question: It doesn't matter how may brands of lifters are in the engine - the engine doesn't know. Now, moving them around to different locations or using them with different cams may make them noisey. A used lifter has a certain stroke at an installed location so moving it or changing cams changes its stroke and it then may stick in the accumulated internal dirt (varnish, sludge -whatever).

 

Yeah I hear ya, these JAM lifters have 1k miles and the other set either has 6k or 34k but pretty sure they were replaced when the motor was redone 6k miles ago.

Anyways, I changed all the #1, 2, and 3 INTAKE lifters and NO Change. I didn't have time to change #4 intake lifter or to do any of th EXH lifters. I am now honestly thinking it's not the lifters only because it is load related, its louder the more load the engine is under and I don't see how the lifters know the engine is under load, a spinning cam is a spinning cam, no?

I took the pan down and pulled the main and rod caps, mains looked good, 2 rods were eh and a little bit of one of the layers comin up but nothing I could see making a noise like it did. BUT the bearings halves were LOOSE when putting in the caps, had very poor bearing crush, but 1 of the 4 rod bearings were Fine, the bearing could be placed in the cap and it would sit in there nice and tight, the other 3 were very loose. I plan on changing the rod bearings anyway, and would do the mains while im in there but I don't think the upper halves can be removed with all the pressure from the timing belt pulling up on the crank snout and the trans holding the other side of the crank good.

I tried to move the rods up and down and check for any rod/wrist pin play but was hard to tell but couldn't find anything excessive but if it's not that I have no idea what else to do....Suggestions/tips/comments??

 

i was really hoping you weren't going to say your bearings were bad

I guess i'll find out soon enough when i pull my stuff apart.
I'm going to be trying that GSC 5041 kit, because of the higher seat pressures.
It just sounds so much like valvetrain noise...

It would have been nice if you could have replaced the rest of those Lifters... ah well.

But yeah, my sound is load based too. I have no idea what it is.

can you get some pics up of the bearings?

edit - the other thing that really annoys me about this sound is it doesn't seem to be terminal. I drove around with my sound for about a month, and even did a track day in that time. I could have kept driving on it (i thought it was the mivec gear clunking around).