Hey guys, Ive recent just finished swapping my short block for a built short block and deleted the balance shaft. I got the head decked and cleaned also. After I assemebled everything again and set the timing I put the motor back in the car. I put the oil in and poured a qrt over the cams and rest of the head. I went to fire the car up and it fired up right away, my afrs and oil pressure were where they should be but there was a loud ticking noise right away and I cant figure out what it is! heres a video of the start up, doesnt really sound like lifters or injectors to me.. hopefully its something stupid like an exhaust leak..

 

That spud is your lifters, if you didn't bleed them the sound will prolly not go away. If you did bleed them the sound will be there and eventually go away. Hold rpm at 2500 for 3-5mins and do the same at 3500. Sound should go away soon after, it will get softer as you put more miles on it

 

I did bleed them, but I didnt hold it that long at 2500 or 3k rpm. I will try some more tomorrow. Thank you for the reply.

 

anyone elses thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 

I'm with lost soul on it being lifters, but if you want to confirm a cheap/quick/easy way to make a stethoscope is just to put a piece of vacuum hose in your ear (preferably not an oily on, that will give you a nasty wet *****) and then start touching the other end around the vc and injector area, that should help you confirm the cause.

 

Long screwdriver works too

 

As long as oil pressure is good, lifters are your likely issue--they are loud at start up and as stated could be that way for a few minutes or it may take some driving and a couple of days to completely tone it down. If its a fresh rebuild you dont want to idle the car but keep oit at rpm and vary the rpm range. GL

 

Thank you thank you, I will try this when I get home from work.

 

That is the classic lifter sound. I had that, and have a couple threads about cams here in which I tried all the of methods for the bleeding. The one that worked the best was the dieseling like the FSM notes. There is tons of debate on several threads about this way or that way.

A good point to remember is what Meckert comments; as long as oil pressure is OK. If your oil pump or pressure is low because you have a small pressure leak somewhere, then the lifters will likely do this at idle too. I'd swear I had that in one of my tear downs too. I did the balance shaft delete so a stubby shaft for the oil pump was used and that created several other possible points of the issue, including oil passages not properly covered, etc.

If you rev just over 1500 rpm does the noise go away? That would somewhat indicate low oil pressure at idle. or does it stay for 30 seconds or longer even at RPM higher than 2k?

 

I did not install the balance shaft delete on my block it was built by jerry.. 94awdcoupe. But to answer you're question
The noise does not go away if I rev it past 2k. I also have an exhaust leak I need to fix which I think is contributing to the noise.

 

For me that indicates that you may have air trapped in the lifters. The more typical issue. If you come off just over idle that usually raises oil pressure enough, that if you had a pressure issue or leak, then that makes up for it, and your lifters go quiet. if you really need to get on it hard, and for anything more than a few seconds, then you likely have the more typical ticking. Possibly from air.

Do you have stock springs or aftermarket?

 

I have gsc valve springs stock retainers.