red-_-z28

Just pulled the valve covers off and they dont smell to nice. I tugged the push rods and some are definitely lose! It makes a little ticking sound. Also removed the driver side spark plugs, i took a look at the passenger side and ehh looks hard to RR.

Well has anyone done any of this?

Dmaleck

iTrader: (6)

Ive never built an lt1 but im guessing its the same as the old sbc, some of the rockers will be a little loose if they arent pushing the valve open, how loose is loose?

red-_-z28

to where when you pull up and down on the push rod it clicks...imagine that at 2500 rpm..As i read they arent suppose to have any slack under my own strength

RamAir95TA

iTrader: (2)

You are better off running the engine with the valve covers off to diagnose a loose rocker. The noise will be very obvious. A very small amount of play is normal.

SS RRR

iTrader: (2)

If you are stating you hear a "little ticking sound" with you moving the pushrod then you may be making a bigger deal out of this than needs to be. Whatever you read about play in the valvetrain w/ the engine off is wrong. As stated a little play in the pushrods that do not have spring pressure on them is normal. The reason being is hydraulic lifters bleed down once the engine is turned off yeliding some play in the valvetrain. It is nothing to worry about.
Are you hearing any distinct tapping while the engine is running?

jaywalkersw

I had a loose rocker a while back and it was very noticeable especially at around 1000-1500rpms (any higher and it started to get drowned out by the exhaust). You could hear it inside the car as long as the radio/ac was off. It made a very distinct tapping sound, kinda like if you had a metal pan and were tapping on it with a coin or something similar. Very noticeable and would trace the RPMs. I narrowed it down to which cylinder was loose by having the car running and taking a really long screwdriver and placing it on top of the valve cover bolts (with valvecovers still on the car) and putting my ear on the handle of the screwdriver. The bolt that had the loudest ticking was where the loose rocker was located. Once I narrowed it down to which head then you could move the screwdriver a little left and right off the bolt and narrow it down to 2 cylinders. After that you'll have to pull the cover off like everyone is saying above to figure out the exact rocker(s) that are loose.