It looks like I need to pull my heads to upgrade my lifters due to valve train noise, so while I'm at it, I was contemplating what to do with the heads. A couple thoughts were to maybe have them ported or have them milled slightly or both, or I could go for broke and just upgrade them to some new heads... Any thoughts? My signature has what my set up is currently.

 

Figure out a budget first then what you can do.

 

Hate to break this to you, but it's not your lifters. They either work or they fail. They don't just make noise. Your valve train noise is normal. When you step up to aftermarket cams it just gets louder. Like a sewing machine. I've had these LS type motors since 1999, and have never had a bad lifter. And they all made valve train noise. When I did my LS2 modding head and cam etc. I suggested to Andy Green @A&A corvette that why not since the heads are off lets replace the lifters. Even after 30,000 miles he said no. No reason to. He was right. That motor now sits im my son's 2002 C5. It went in with 50,000 miles on the clock and now has 75,000 on it making 461rwhp and has never missed a beat. Still going strong. Hate to see you spend your money when you don't need to, but if it makes you feel better go for it. Don't be surprised if the noise is still there. My current motor is a forged 427 and it made noise since it's first day just like a sewing machine, a loud one. Good luck

 

Good info., Andreas g.

 

What I thought was valve train noise is really the injectors clicking, I just finished installing full roller rocker arms and the motor did get quieter, smoother, now I can really hear the injectors. Remember people these are ALL ALUMINUM motors you will hear things you would not with a cast iron block, heads

 

Check out Cartek Racing (www.cartek.net), a loyal board sponsor and extemely talented outfit, for any cylinder head porting/milling needs. They do all R&D and machine work in house and specialize in everything/anything 'LSx vehicle' related.

 

I figured when I made this post that I would probably have to explain why I need to change my lifters and how I know I have a few bad ones, so here it is...

I screwed up!!! When I put the Trak cam in, I originally just replaced the Push Rods, Springs and Retainers, NOT the Spring Seats! At the time I knew I should have, but the package had come open during shipping and 3 of the seats were missing, plus the difference in thickness was very minimal and the engine only had 36,000 on it... I know, Poor Logic... Problem was though that switching from single beehive type springs to the double springs reduced the inside clearance causing the springs to bind and shove the new high strength rods to over compress the Lifters. I ended up breaking several springs before I realized what was going on. Being that this wasn't my first big cam, I expected it to have a lot of valve train noise so I ended up racing it several times before realizing it was getting louder and louder. Interestingly, my times never seemed to wander, I was running consistent 11.8's the whole time. I've since replaced all the Springs, Retainers and SEATS and still only have a best of 11.76. Now when I'm at low rpm it sounds just a hair louder than I think it should, but when I bring the rpm's up to about 3,000-3,500 and hold it there under light throttle, you can hear it get louder after a few seconds, indicating to me that some of the lifters have been compromised and are now bleeding down. I have a buddy with almost the same setup and his doesn't get louder at all...

What I curious is to know what kind of costs and gains people are getting with:

Mild porting
Mild porting and Milling to bing the compression up to 11.4 or so
Max Porting
Going to bigger, higher flowing heads altogether.

As far as a budget goes; as cheap and effective as possible. This is probably only going to be a somewhat short term fix anyway since I eventually will be building a Forged 427 to support some type of big power adder.

 

Still looking for input...