Hello again. You may recall that a month or so ago I put a new camshaft in my '78 Trans Am. It's an L78 Pontiac 400, but now it has milled 6X-8 heads, an "RV" cam, and new lifters. Other than that it's an original 150k mile engine.
After all the work, it fired right up, broke right in, and ran great. I drove it around for a couple days before putting a cover on it and moving on to my son's '69 Firebird project. I didn't start it for about a month.
When I started it the other day, it went "tick tick" pretty loud. Two ticks, then the sound went away. It fired up pretty good for having sat for a month. The "tick tick" bothered me, but I hoped it was just because I let it sit so long.
The next day, it did exactly the same thing. Two ticks. The third day, two ticks again. It sounded exactly the same each time. If I turn the engine off and immediately restart it, it doesn't tick. But if I let it sit for an hour or so, exactly two ticks every time.
I suspect (and hope) it's a mis-adjusted lifter. I used chevy rocker arm nuts to adjust the rockers, so I probably didn't get one just right. Would I have turned too far, or not far enough? Or am I paying the price for buying cheap lifters, and one is leaking down?
Lemme know what you think.
Wayne.