I finished my LS6 heads/cam swap last Sunday. The car ran great and had no issues. I ran it for about 10 miles and babied it. Today I took the car out and did a 1/4 mile run. After I was finished the car sounded like it had a bad exhaust leak. When I got out of the car I could hear a loud metallic clicking sound coming from the passenger side of the motor. The ticking increased with engine speed. The motor is running rougher, like it's missing on one cylinder and I got the flashing SES light.

What the hell did I do to my car? I don't think I rev'd it about 6K and the redline is stock at 6200. I'm going to pull the code and the valve cover. I'm hoping it's just a bent push-rod (I re-used the stockers). The valve springs are LS6 springs, and the heads are stock LS6 as is the cam. No other changes to the valvetrain.

One other wierd thing. The tapping almost went away when I was limping the car back. It's still there, but really faint now.

Please help. My wife is going to kill me.

 

sounds like a collaped lifter... at least thats kinnda what mine sounded like

 

Get the valve covers off and check things visually....It almost sounds like you possibly left a rocker loose. Didnt overrev or misshift did ya?

 

I didn't over-rev or miss a shift. I took it up to 6k in 1-2-3. Could be a lifter being the sound changed. I'm going to pull the valve cover.

 

Ok, fixed the problem after pulling the valve cover. I forgot to tighten down the last rocker bolt on #8 cylinder. Runs fine now, no damage.

 

You wiped the swet right off your for head I bet!

 

lol u luck bastad!!!

I wasn't so lucky

 

hahaha, i think this is the first time we've seen somebody actually check the easy stuff and find the problem!!

Great work!
Adrian

 

Damn your lucky you didnt F#%k something up. If you wanna play it safe I would suggest going to hardened pushrods. That way you wont bend them.

 

I was highly relieved to find the problem, and it didn't cost anything. I thought for sure I was going to be shelling out big $$$. I need to be more careful.