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Currently my LS1 is making a lot of what really sounds like lifter clatter between 1200 and 2000rpm. It is loud enough it can't really be ignored. It isn't present until the oil is above 150 degrees, the oil pressure still increases sharply with rpm from around 40 psi hot idle to 80+.
The engine is in a new to me 2000 corvette that didn't have any issues besides an oil leak when I bought it. A previous owner has put 243 heads on. After some time I was getting belt squeak and saw my harmonic balancer was wobbling. Being the type of person to leave nothing unmodified, I decided that while I replace the balancer I would spice it up a bit with a cam. I tore everything open and did the work to do the balancer and cam plus new springs and pushrods, new oil pump, timing chain, but I did NOT do lifters. I get it all back together and besides from a very rough idle everything seemed okay. First drive I can hear a ticking noise that I hadn't heard before.
At this point I turned to the internet for advice, and lots of forums are saying its lifter related for this sort of noise. The main culprits were a bad o-ring on the oil pickup letting in air, or the old lifters were bleeding down under the new lift and spring pressure. So I tear it all apart again and replace the oil pickup o-ring which was actually pinched. Get it all back together and no appreciable change. The only obvious thing left is to get new lifters so I got new LS7 lifters and installed them. The new cam had no signs of grooving or flattening of a lobe. Put it back together and its the same issue, Ticking/clattering loud enough to hear on the highway if the radio is turned down.
I have the heads off the engine currently but haven't found any smoking guns. My oil looks clean, good oil pressure, the cam and lifters are all fine, no bent pushrods. Before I disassembled it for the most recent time I ran it with the valve covers off and after about 15 seconds all the rockers had oil flowing to them. The front cylinders in the drivers side head took longer to completely oil than the rest. I am out of ideas. The only stock part in the valvetrain are the valves and rockers now. I am still waiting to get the car retuned in case someone thinks its relevant. The noise is too concerning to live with. Any advice would be appreciated.
I tore the heads off, and the cam and lifters all look pristine. Getting it back together and fired up and nothing has changed, same exact ticking sound. However, I think it the sound is happening at all rpms above 1200 or so, it’s just hard to hear over the exhaust at higher rpm.
I tore the heads off, and the cam and lifters all look pristine. Getting it back together and fired up and nothing has changed, same exact ticking sound. However, I think it the sound is happening at all rpms above 1200 or so, it’s just hard to hear over the exhaust at higher rpm.
Personally, I don't think you've got anything to worry about. LS engines aren't ever going to win any quiet engines awards! My LS7 has what sounds like one noisy lifter that doesn't quiet down until after at least 1 minute has elapsed. I've changed lifters twice. Still there. 40,000 miles down the road, a different cam, fixed heads, still there. Runs great. I'm not pulling the heads a third time until they absolutely must be removed.
I hear ya, I'm slowly starting to accept that this may be how it is. My main concern is that if it is lifter bleed down then the valvetrain will wear prematurely. Unless someone pops in here with the magic bullet I'll go through with my dyno tune this thursday and then let it ride.
Depends on your specific noise. A problem that you didn't see when you tore it down will show metal in the oil filter. You could check that.
But it is true, they are noisy. I have a 2002 camaro ss I bought nearly new under warranty. They changed some front drive parts like pulleys and a few other things. Finally they changed the lifters. The noise never changed. They eventually told me its normal.
Well it's still together today,, still makes the same noise. It never changes.
What sucks is trying to sell it. It'll always be used as a problem for a potential buyer to point out and try to talk the price down.
I got the car tuned this morning, the tuner thought everything sounded in spec. Put down 360whp, which is modest but I'm happy with it. Gonna put the noises out of my mind and just enjoy it as is. Cheers.
I've dealt with lifter noise for the last 2 years with nothing but problems. Had a cam installed years back with just pushrods, springs and oil pump, left the stock lifters in, had a faint tick when it was warm but not bad at all and should have left it that way but I got nervous and wanted to install new lifters for peace of mind so put in some LS7s. Ran good for a while, then ended up getting it retuned about a year later and thats when all the problems started. After I got it back i remember the valve train was a little noisier than before. Then one day I was driving it and beat on it a little bit and started ticking even louder so after messing around with trying different weight oil and trans fluid in the oil to "clean out" any debris and snake oils I ended up pulling the heads off. Didn't find anything out of the ordinary, cam and lifters looked fine but since i was already in there i bought some johnson 2110 lifters and decided to change the heads also. Put PRC 225s on with johnson lifters and measured and ordered new pushrods (which was a hassle with trying to find one pushrod length that would work with johnson's recommended preload). Ended up getting it back together and tuned and it ran great, pretty quiet, no tick like before, ran it like this all summer that year until one time I beat on it and BAM, lifter tick again at anything over like 1500 RPM. Oil pressure always remained good. So I dropped the oil and found all kinds of glittery bearing material in the oil and small flakes of non magnetic bearing in the filter. At that point I said F*ck it I'm pulling the engine out, and of course when I did that I inspected the cam and lifters again and they all looked perfect...WTF. I ended up pushing the motor into the corner and ordered a forged 383 short block and disassembled the johnson lifters that only had a couple hundred miles on them, cleaned them out found zero issues with them and reassembled them, reused them along with the BTR stage 3 cam, and same PRC heads on the new 383, just ordered new pushrods. Got the engine back in and running and ran great with no ticking (thank god) but ended up running into a whole different misfire issued that was reluctor wheel related and ended up pulling the motor AGAIN, So long story short, drop your oil and filter..if you dont see anything abnormal in it...just RUN IT as is. lol
I've dealt with lifter noise for the last 2 years with nothing but problems. Had a cam installed years back with just pushrods, springs and oil pump, left the stock lifters in, had a faint tick when it was warm but not bad at all and should have left it that way but I got nervous and wanted to install new lifters for peace of mind so put in some LS7s. Ran good for a while, then ended up getting it retuned about a year later and thats when all the problems started. After I got it back i remember the valve train was a little noisier than before. Then one day I was driving it and beat on it a little bit and started ticking even louder so after messing around with trying different weight oil and trans fluid in the oil to "clean out" any debris and snake oils I ended up pulling the heads off. Didn't find anything out of the ordinary, cam and lifters looked fine but since i was already in there i bought some johnson 2110 lifters and decided to change the heads also. Put PRC 225s on with johnson lifters and measured and ordered new pushrods (which was a hassle with trying to find one pushrod length that would work with johnson's recommended preload). Ended up getting it back together and tuned and it ran great, pretty quiet, no tick like before, ran it like this all summer that year until one time I beat on it and BAM, lifter tick again at anything over like 1500 RPM. Oil pressure always remained good. So I dropped the oil and found all kinds of glittery bearing material in the oil and small flakes of non magnetic bearing in the filter. At that point I said F*ck it I'm pulling the engine out, and of course when I did that I inspected the cam and lifters again and they all looked perfect...WTF. I ended up pushing the motor into the corner and ordered a forged 383 short block and disassembled the johnson lifters that only had a couple hundred miles on them, cleaned them out found zero issues with them and reassembled them, reused them along with the BTR stage 3 cam, and same PRC heads on the new 383, just ordered new pushrods. Got the engine back in and running and ran great with no ticking (thank god) but ended up running into a whole different misfire issued that was reluctor wheel related and ended up pulling the motor AGAIN, So long story short, drop your oil and filter..if you dont see anything abnormal in it...just RUN IT as is. lol
Best. Advice. Ever. All LS engines have a particular tick or click. I bought a 2020 savanna 2500 for the business brand new. It’s the last year of the LS. It ticks louder than any LS I’ve ever heard. I’m not touching it. I bet it goes 375k miles like the rest of mine have.
I never pulled any rod or main caps but when i pulled the cam out the cam bearings showed some wear, and since I found all of that metal in the oil, the rod and main bearings im sure would have been trashed or worn to the point of a rebuild being necessary. That's when I decided to just find another short block and upgrade while i was at it.
this oil only had 700 miles on it so it should have been pretty clean still.
01-07-2023, 06:35 PM
LS1 noise at hot cruise 
