Ok...I'll spare you.

 

ttt

 

here is a clip I posted recently - mine Did turn out to be a bad lifter
-checked all the springs etc before removing heads and finding the problem. Cam was toast too. Hope yours turns out better
(click on pic to listen)

 

Was your performance hindered at all or did the car run and idle normally? Any codes or anything unusual? Thanks for the help

 

You are in Newport News. Take it down to VA Speed and have Shawn look at it. They will straighten things out for you.

 

My forum prediction on your video noise issue is there will be a new cam in your future. While at it, if the harmonic balancer and timing chain are original, replace them too. Wish you the best!

 

Do you guys think it's driveable at all or should I flat bed it to a shop? Virginia speed is about an hour away.
I sure hope it's not bad enough to kill the cam. Car already has an aftermarket one.

 

any idea on the average cost of a new cam install and tune?

 

With that kind of noise, I would not risk driving it. About a year ago, I had a rocker bolt break on me around Richmond on way back home from VA Speed after a tuning session. Engine was making a loud ticking noise and I experience a loss of power. Called VA Speed and they arranged for a tow company to drive to Richmond and pick up my car and haul it back to their shop. Found one of the ARP rocker bolts has broken on the Harland Sharp rocker on my #1 cylinder. Rocker was bit beat up but no other damage. Replaced the two shaft rockers and all the rocker bolts using loctite. If I had driven the car, I would have destroyed the head. Good news was I had towing reimbursement on my insurance policy that paid for the tow. My advice, have the car towed.

 

Definitely will get it towed.
I contacted Virginia Speed. If it is in fact the lifter and if the cam is messed up, they said they would charge 2200 for a new cam package, tune and labor. Then 1000 to remove the heads and install the new lifters, gaskets, bolts etc.
So 3200 total.

The bad lifter and bad cam is all speculation now. Gotta see what the definite problem is before anything. I'm going to try to find another shop to take a look at it because VA Speed is out of my budget at the moment.

 

Decided to tear into it myself, only one way to learn haha



The cam lobe looks ok though...

 

Wrong!! What you have is the results of a bad lobe heat treat. Put a new lifter on that lobe will have you making the same repair in short order if you are lucky. If you are not too lucky you will be replacing the engine.

Seriously, get yourself a new cam and lifters.

 

 

Can you please elaborate more on that? I'm interested.
Not disagreeing with you or anything.

 

You will need a metallurgist to give you the details of the end results. That’s out of my field. I can show you a few other examples of the issue you have.

This is an example of a good lifter damaged by the cam lobe in the second photo.



The lobe shows far less damage compared to the lifter, though the lobe was the issue in this case.

 

Wow - this is exactly what my problem was. I tore mine apart and just got it back together two days ago. I had one lifter that looked like that one (#3 exhaust) and another that had just started to go bad. Both lifters caused damage to the cam lobes (or vice-versa depending on the failure mode).

New LPE GT11 cam, LS7 style lifters, LS2 3-bolt timing set, Melling high volume oil pump, new seals, Powerbond PB1117SS damper, crank pinning kit, LS2 power steering pump puley, HP Tuners with LC-1... a pretty expensive way to end the summer!

When I have some spare time come up I plan to post a thread with some pics of the rebuild, but it looks like you're well on your way with yours already! Good luck - and trust me and the others here, you're getting a new cam!

 

Thanks for everyone's input.
I wasn't saying that I wasn't changing the cam, just stating that it looks ok.

So is it confirmed that the bad lifter roller I have caused the tapping/ticking sound in my engine? Or can it still be something else? Sounds like a ridiculous question but I am new to all this. Working on the car and taking it apart is straight forward for me as I am very mechanically inclined. Just need some clarification on how the internals work Why would a rough roller surface cause a ticking sound? Is it because the valve isn't opening correctly?

Thanks again.

 

Simple answer, NO, the lifter didn't cause the "tapping/ticking sound". The loss of the close ramp on the cam lobe did.

Ok, let’s keep this as simple as we can, otherwise this will turn into a book. The cam lift profile is an amazing thing. It has the job of pushing all of the components from the lifter roller, lifter, pushrod, rocker arm, valve and valve spring full open and then the valve spring has the reverse job of keeping all the same components moving back until the valve is closed. It is kind of a love hate relation; because the cam lift profile is trying to keep everyone in the system in phase with each other and working together. Sometimes not all of the components are happy and when one of them is not happy it messes everyone up.

Part of the cam lift profile, call the close ramp, has the job of slowing the valve just prior to its closing. This ramp is extremely important. If the valve meets the valve seat at too high of a velocity the valve may bounce off the valve seat. This is not a good thing as it will allow part of the cylinder charge to pass through when you really don’t want it too. The other down side of this is radiated noise. Higher the valve close velocity the higher the noise we hear. This closing ramp occupies a very small area of the total cam lobe profile and it can be damaged very easily if any wear at all to the cam lobe occurs.

So, in the case of your engine, and by the audio file you posted, I can pick out the impact noise associated with high closing velocity of the valve and it also had the high frequency chirp caused by the lifter roller when it’s not rotating at the same speed as the cam lobe.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post this Eric
It really clears things up.
Ok, so now to the fun part , time to pick a new cam

It's really amazing that this happened because of a bad cam, hopefully it doesn't happen again.

 

For those that have done a cam install, is it easier to install a cam with the heads off the car? Or should I put the heads back on after the new lifters are in? I know you don't need to take off the heads for a cam install but will it make inserting the new cam easier at all since the heads and lifters are out right now?

Thanks for everyone's help