I can hear the sound you're referring to, and I'm quite familiar with it.

My cammed '99 FRC with long tubes sounds like this all the time. I took it to a local specialty Corvette shop and was told it sounded quite normal. Don't know if I was given bad intel or if it's true. Either way, it drives me nuts. Especially when there's a building, curb or wall next to the car. It really amplifies the clattery ticking chattering sound. I'll try and post up a video when I get home from work.

I did some research and found that some people are able to quiet the noise by tightening a loose spark plug. Hasn't worked for me.

I haven't noticed any performance issues. The car pulls hard throughout the rev range. I don't hear it much at idle (850rpms), but anything over 1,000rpms it really starts going. Hot or cold, doesn't matter.

 

I'm pretty sure mine is a noisey lifter. The noise comes from under the intake manifold and is way worse cold than hot. I just cant believe replacing 2 bent pushrods did basically nothing to help my noise. This winter ill buy some heads and replace the cam and lifters.

 

 

 

It has always gotten quieter as the engine warms up. Even with the bent pushrods in there. Never completely goes away but gets alot quieter.

 

 

Glad you appear to have found the cause (or at least the effect) of your problem. Yes if you need to replace the lifters, then also upgraded to the LS2 trays #12595365. I used the GM LS3/7 lifters #12499225. Not sure if you want to need to open up the front of the engine, but yes as mentioned above the LS2 timing chain #12586482 is a nice upgrade over the LS1 unit.

 

 

The higher pitched metal to metal tick is what bothers me. Ive noticed it starts quieting down once the oil reaches 150* or so. It gets alot better when the oil is 190* but i can still hear it a little.

 

 

Yes i removed and rolled all of them. Had to bent ones. One was a slight bend the other was the really bent one in the pic.

 

Same issue with mine. It started after I had it dyno tuned. If i can get this thing to post my video correctly I will show you.

 

 

Does your sound like this?? I had long tubes put on and then a Dyno tune shortly after that and it wasn't until then that I noticed the noise I believe I may have damaged a lifter while on the dyno. After a cold start it takes a min or two and it sounds like this until reach op temp then will slowly go away at idle. Between 1k-1500k rpms you can still hear it.

 

You know I was thinking of mentioning the oil pumps as well, but decided not too. Lots of details here that can confuse some folks, but here we go;

If you are running a HD single roller chain like the LS2 or C5R unit then you can run the Mellings #10295 high pressure (+10%), stock volume or the Melling #10296 stock pressure, higher volume (+18%) pumps without any clearance issues. BTW, if you would like you can run the Melling higher pressure Red relief spring (not the crazy COPO Camaro spring) in the Melling #10296, you would then have a higher pressure, higher flow rated pump which would be handy if what you had was a race engine with wider bearing clearances and/or say the LSA/LS9 or Kaytech oil squirters.

If you are running a double roller chain, you may have clearance issues with the Mellings pumps, but you shouldn't have clearance issue with the factory oil pumps. If you like factory oil pumps then the LS6 pump #12586665 has a 32 pcs relief spring. You can also buy the LS6 pump ported for additional flow from some aftermarket sources, but for a street motor that may not be 100% needed.

GM also has the +30% higher flow pumps from the LS4 engines ('05-06 #12571885 with the 52 psi relief spring and '07 #12612289 with the 42 psi relief spring), or the Mellings LS4/L92 pump #10355 with +33% higher flow, but those are not needed nor should they be used in a non DOD engine unless you have a really crazy road race car setup with say a massive coil cooler, a remount mount dual oil filter setup and lots of long external larger diameter oil lines.

Keep in mind with the +30-33% higher flow rated oil pumps it may be smart/necessary to also have the oil return ports in the heads chamfered, opened and/or cleaned up to help promote oil return flow and to keep the oil from pooling up in the top end of the motor during sustained high RPM events.

Please consult with you engine builder on your specific requirements.

 

This is the exact same sound my car '99 FRC makes with long tubes and a cam. At idle, 850rpms, you can't hear it. But as soon as it gets up to 1000rpms or more, its there. I was told by a local Corvette specialty shop that it was normal. I dunno. Been trying to track this down for a couple of months to no avail. The car performs and drives well, pulls hard through the entire rev range, but something just doesn't sound "right."

 

 

My car did not used to make this noise even with aftermarket shorty headers. It sounds like one lifter to me. It's strange because standing at the motor listening it is obviously comibg from the passenger side front of the motor but when I use a stethoscope on the header primaries I hear a tapping coming from the drivers side on cyl 3 that is much louder than the rest. I am confused