I have recently purchased a 2010 street glide with a screaming eagle stage 2 kit. The bike runs great but I am noticing that it has a ticking noise coming from the engine that gets worse when the engine is hot. Sounds like valves ticking- is there any adjustments to the valve lash that can be made? Also noticed that the oil pressure is only about 15 psi when hot. I changed the oil and filter hoping that would help but no change. Any suggestions?

 

Oil pressure is fine; no worries there. The earlier models were lucky to see 5psi at hot idle. The H-D oiling system is volume based; not pressure.

As for the ticking; welcome to the H-D world. Some valve trains are noisy, some are not; some lifters bleed down, some don't; some engines are delivered with tighter tolerances than others, etc. What some refer to as "ticking",others don't even hear.

If it really bothers you, a set of adjustable pushrods and more preload on the lifter may help but so will a set of ear plugs.

 

or a set of louder pipes.

That would be the way to go if the ticking is bothering you that much. Never noticed they didn't include adjustable pushrods with their stage 2 kits.

 

Thanks for the advice. I was a little more concerned with the oil pressure than the ticking but thought one may be causing the other. Whats the easiest way to check the valve lash or is there an easy way?

 

At what RPM?

 

We hear this quite commonly from CVO 110" owners.
Usually a good lifter, set with a proper pre-load will cure it, in in fact you are hearing valve train noise.
Lifter hydrology, or better yet, lack of, is the 10 dollar word that describes what is going on.
Scott

 

No "easy" way. Pop the pushrod tube clips and expsed the pushrods. Pick a cylinder and puot the piston at TDC on the compression stroke. You should be able to rotate the pushrod but not feel any up/down movement, or any side to side movement of the pushrod in the lifter cup.

If you go that far, might as well cut the pushrods with bolt cutters and install a set of adjustables. If more preload doesn't solve the problem, one or more of the lifters is probably bleeding down when the oil temp gets up. Like Scott says, lifter hydrology; the lifter is losing it's prime at operating temperature.

 

Having dealt with two 103’s with the same issue. Valve noise in reference to certain rpm. Harley stock lifters are being found with rollers not square to the lifter. Also issues are being found with lifters bores not square to cams. Cam plates not aligned with bearings on inside cam side of block. Also cam plates are having issues with oil pressure relief spring checks not seated correctly. I would encourage you to pick a parts vendor you trust and make some calls and speak to their techs. I changed cams, lifters and added adjustable push rods. In reference to your oil pressure what rpm are you running while at 15 lbs. Ticking noise would be very acceptable to me in my dealings with valve noise. Millage will tell on my issue. I tolerated my noise until 12,000 on my 2012. Gave up on my 2011 and traded into the same issue on a 2012. Found Harley not very willing to help with issues. I fixed out of my own pocket to enjoy riding with the noise hurting my ears. 2k on new parts and still happy.

 

The "C" lifter that replaced the "B" lifter is manufactured in Mexico. The change was a running change in late 2011, so, depending on build date, some '11s came with Cs; all '12s came with Cs. The rollers not being square, rollers pitting, and rollers failing have all been reported issues related to the C lifters. A set of CompCams 850-1 lifters is cheap and they are Delphi, so the quality is there.

 

Or a set of Gaterman 1023 lifters. Google 'em for more information. http://harleytechtalk.org/htt/index....c,60544.0.html

Not sure of the price difference between the CompCams and Gatermans.