Hello! My 1978 Lowrider had what I believe were 9.5 : 1 S&S pistons and the S&S 450s cam installed about 8 years ago. It sounded to me like a lifter wasn’t pumping up so I put solid conversions in. Thing was always noisy and I wanted to quit it down so I get new lifters, rollers, pushrods and blocks. It’s definitely quieter now but I get a random louder tick from the front head. It does it at all rpm’s whenever it wants to. I can’t get it to happen, it just does. I plan on taking the tappet screen out and see if it’s plugged and if needed I’ll pull the head to see if the rocker is too loose. Since I’m this far, should I pull both heads and re ring? Are my pistons and cam matched? Ran ok but was always a dog in my opinion. I say in my opinion because my twin cams are all a little built and are more powerful and don’t have another shovelhead to compare it to. Thanks in advance!

 

8 years with performance stuff in it you were behaving and not beating it but riding it to enjoy

dont 1/2 a$$ it you might have a worn valve guide causing this it will at some point wreck the valve seat hitting it at a odd angle that it normally does not

and replace the rocker bushings - mike the shafts to ensure they are round and not worn also - ball hone it and re ring it with moly top rings and the valve guide seals must be the rubber ones not tin china junk see below

 

thanks. I’ll pull everything apart and check everything and of course I beat on it!

 

ya think

 

I know there are nay sayers here but there's a spec for rocker end play and I wouldn't skip looking at that. My shovel I could not get quiet with solids unless I set the valves so tight that when cold the valves would be off their seats. Rocker end play is massive on my bike and I didn't feel like pulling the heads during riding season. The noise was coming from the rocker cover until I went to hydraulics and my theory is they take up the slop and keep the rocker held to one side but with solids it wasn't possible.

Pacific Mike did a video about setting the end play and that if its not right you'll get a ticking sound like I had.

 

That's a hard must do for a shovel for me, be surprised the noise level drop when done right.

 

i had a similar tick on my 80 lowrider 35yrs ago and the rockers needed shimming

 

+1 for Pacific Mike on YouTube! 😎

 

we torque them to a number and stay on that torque or the distance changes the last time doing it a drop of blue is insurance