E31 Engine Tick

[Maritimer]

Hi All,

Got a fun clicking noise coming from my L24, goes up with engine revs. Just replaced a worn camshaft and rockers trying to solve it, valve lash set cold. Engine is an E31 from an earlier car. The old spark plug lead pull seems to quench it a little. Anyone recognize it?

 

[Maritimer]

Pulled the valvetrain apart, are these wear patterns bad news?

 

 

Edited April 30, 2020 by Maritimer
Blurry pictures

[Zed Head]

How do the cam lobes look?  Looks like the PO used the wrong lash pads.  Maybe put a new cam in and used the old rocker arms and pads. Tthat's probably where the clicking came from, as the lobes slipped off the ends of the rocker arms.

So, yes, bad news.  Maybe not terrible though.

[Maritimer]

Those are new ITM rockers, no idea on the old lash pads, only have the cam and a set of rockers that ate another cam. Here’s the ones that look worst for wear.

 

Edited April 30, 2020 by Maritimer

[Zed Head]

They don't look terrible.  Get the right pads and you'll probably be fine.  Looks like the valve stem heights are uneven too so you'll probably need to do each one individually.  Tedious.  The other guys know more, that's what I see though, and it fits your ticking noises.  Several lobes are at then end of the wear pad.

https://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/PROD/10-2041A

[Maritimer]

Sounds half salvageable then. I see that there’s only .150 and .160 at Motorsport and anything above needs an aftermarket retainer. Is there sizes between this? As far as I’m aware my retainers are all OEM

39 minutes ago, Zed Head said:

They don't look terrible.  Get the right pads and you'll probably be fine.  Looks like the valve stem heights are uneven too so you'll probably need to do each one individually.  Tedious.  The other guys know more, that's what I see though, and it fits your ticking noises.  Several lobes are at then end of the wear pad.

https://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/PROD/10-2041A

 

[duffymahoney]

I had a tick and I added zinc to the oil and it went away.  No clue why, but sounds awesome now.  

[motorman7]

I once had a loud click on my '70 and it turned out to be the water pump  (I thought it was perhaps a rod bearing).  Turns out the bearings on the water pump were getting bad allowing the shaft to mis-align enough to have the impeller vanes hit the housing, causing the click.   

[Zed Head]

Look at the wear patterns on his rocker arm pads.  Most are way off the end.

There was a guy a couple of years ago that had a similar pattern, and noise, and you could see wear on the rocker arms, completely off the end of the pads.

[Maritimer]

sure enough, measured my rocker guides and they’re all stock .120 size, albeit a bit worn. Rechecked the wipe and it’s way off on a couple cylinders. Most worn (thinnest) pad on the worst one still produced a bad pattern. I’ll check valve heights off the machined valve cover surface but it looks like I’ve got a trip to the machine shop to schedule?

[Dave WM]

looks very clean, what kind of oil do you use?

[Maritimer]

VR1 High Zinc

Put my oem rockers back in to check their pattern, still not great but it looks like there’s a slight difference between the one and ITM units.

Is this a valve stem fix? Can the OEM pads be safely reduced?

Edited May 2, 2020 by Maritimer