OK. I'm pulling hair out now... Setup:

Stock heads & bottom end, TR224 cam (or so I'm told) Crane 1.7 roller rockers, 7.250 chromoly PR's, 918 springs.

My car has had excessive valve train noise since I got it at 40,000 miles. Light intermittent ticking. Comes and goes. In an attempt to quiet down the valve train I have been trying to adjust my rockers. So while attempting to set my preload and I noticed that a couple of my lifters have a spongy feel when I press on the rockers. There is some travel within the lifter maybe about 1/8" to 1/4". My assumption is that this is not normal.

So are these lifters toast? My understanding is that these lifters should be rock solid and should not be able to be pushed in by hand. I'm looking for responses quickly cause I'll need to move fast to order all the parts I need as this is my daily driver. Thanks.

 

Stock lifters? I would upgrade them no matter what.

Mine were getting noisey just like you are describing. I installed the LS7's and it went away.

 

Yeah, I've been leaning towards LS7 lifters. I would normally give this a shot myself but don't have much time to mess around. I was quoted today $1,100.00 in labor alone to toss in the LS7's. Seems high... The books are saying 15.5 hrs. I can't imagine it taking more than 8 hrs.

 

Dang! For that price you might as well get a friend with some experience to help and go spend that 1K on a nice set of heads!!

Typically the lifters should last a little longer just as long as you do not beat on it and that should give you enough time to save up. It's really not that hard. I did it 3 times in a row trying to find a bug.

 

7.250 pushrods? Are the rockers making up for some of the missing length? With stock bottom end and heads with a 224 you should have 7.400 to 7.450 range installed based on the bazilion other builds. Unless the rocker makes up for the length. You should not be able to compress even a dry lifter with your finger. Changing them sucks, but $1100 is a lot of labor.

 

I am also curious about the PR setup. If the pushrods were too short could that of caused all of your symptoms?

 

That does seem high, especially for flat rate time.

You do have to pull the intake manifold, disconnect the exhaust manifolds, and remove the heads though to gain access to the lifters. So its definitely no easy job.

 

Did yours give you the tick-tick-tick if you stood by the drivers or passengers side door?? If you stand at or near the front of the engine, you don't hear it though, and it only is noticeable when its warm. I think its valvetrain noise echoing in the headers.

 

That's what mine does...

 

I'm told that these are the length needed for the Crane Rockers...

Yes, the perils of buying a modded car.

I just started the adjustment process again. With zero lash, I can push down all of the pushrods into the lifters... all of them!!! I guess they bled down... There's about 3/16th travel.

I worry that oil press at the lifters may be low...??? My oil press at idle is at 40psi... 60 at high revs.

 

I'd replace the lifters. The Crane setup is fairly quiet compared to alot of other setups. As said already, you shouldn't be able to compress the lifters that much by hand. I used the Comp oe lifters when I built mine up.

 

If you back off on the lifters, then the plunger will not be fully oil support because there is no pressure to re-fill the lifter. Don't gauge the lifters based on you removed the pushrods and you can move the plungers.

7.250" pushrods is the correct length for the Crane rockers unless running AFR heads.

 

Read there setup.
http://www.vincihiperformance.com/ma...%20dog%201.htm