just wondering what i should be looking for in the way of motor maintenance issues. it runs well, but at idle i hear a ticking sound. is this normal? I know that there are a lot of moving parts, but i am not sure if it has always like this. i am fair at wrenching my own, but not sure of this. is there an adjustment for valves? the motor has 75000 miles, always done oil changes. running synthetic oil for the last couple of changes. Any one have any ideas?

 

Depending on how loud it is the ticking is normal.
At speed the motor should sound like a pissed off sewing machine.

A leaky rocker box will make this sound louder than normal.

 

To get rid of the ticking sound I know of only two things that can help.
Roller rockers and adjustable pushrods.

With the pushrods you adjust them to spec then add one flat and that is supposed to help with the ticking.

 

If you still have the original lifters, it's time to change them out. Lifters are a maintenance item and failures are common. At the very least, pull the lifters and inspect them. A bad wheel bearing can cause catastrophic damage.

 

pull cam chest apart check bushing on pinion shaft. mine had a tick that bushing had moved forward and the snap ring on it went into the oil gear.. into full motor teardown now.. 97 evo..look down this forum for 97 crank bearing thread..seems to be an issue with these years..

 

Synthetic oil is part of the problem from the start , but only some of us evo owners agree on that, 20/50 con. Valvoline all the way. ALSO agree with Texas..

 

do you think that using synthetic may be the cause? I have a crankcase leak now that i did not have before the synthetic swap. I will try to check the lifters as well. I moved and don't have garage access any more.

 

At risk of touching off WW3, it has been my experience on a number of bikes that synthetic oil allows more rattling than the same grade dino.

But..
+1 on 75,000 is time to change lifters. Do the camshaft needle roller bearing while you are in there. Spanners posted a useful thread on how to do it that is in the stickies up top.

 

NEVER NEVER run Synth in an old Evo! Its not that its not an awesome oil in its own right, BUT in my experiance it bloody well cleaned all the chit and collected gunk out of my engine which resulted in more noise, more oil useage and more leaks.

The good old Dino oil tends to actually help seal the engine up a little as it deposits thin layers in places.

Just my experience!

 

It won't be the whole cause but running synthetic will make it louder as synthetic has a lower viscosity than dino oil.

There have been several people here who had a base gasket leak with synthetic that went away when they switched back to dino oil.