Chasing an annoying tick!! I swear it sounds like an exhaust leak!

After many trips up and down, with mirrors and feeing around, I can稚 find anything!! No sooty spots anywhere and cannot feel any air puffing anywhere ( other than half way down exhaust at my band clamps, ( not to be used confused with band camps.. lol )
Next guess is lifters, pulled valve covers off and did a wiggle test, nothing, fired it up ( that made a mess). Still can稚 tell! Thought that maybe they are bleeding down under load as I have the hotcam ( .525 lift ) with the 1.6 ratio rockers. So I ordered new lifters, came in a few days ago, I upgraded to the ls7 lifters as they are a drop in replacement!

got home early today and tore into it!!! Listers are done! Now I just have to put it all back together!! Too hot out there now, ac is on in garage and I should be able to get a good couple of hours tomorrow to get it back together before the sun moves onto my garage door!!

 

The great thing about the lt1 is there is no coolant at in intake!! Cooling system still full and untouched!!

 

Out of curiousity, were the rockers, rollers? If not, are they adjustable ?

At one time, I thouht the inlet would need to be removed. I busted the WP drive

Resolved with an electric pump. Very pleased with it!!!

Did you use gaskets on the Ram horns? I used RTV. so far, so good. No leaks.

And at the outlet of the ram horns. Flange or donut gasket. I opted for the former. So far so good.

OTH, my ears are not all that great!!!! A tick might go un noticed. Even with my aids on...

AC in the shop!!!! Woweee... I could, but will not. Rob the old window unit from my old office. Not in use. it worked great there. with a bodge!!!!! The fan motor in t went bonkers. Noise kept getting worse, til it went silent. I put a small portable in in front. Better than ever...

Carl

Carl

 

Darren: Hope the lifters resolve your "ticking" issue.
I am still putting my LT1 together.
?? for you.
How did you hook up your radiator hoses? My upper hose (driver side) has a T on it. I was told that the steam pipe (banjo fittings) behind the head is supposed to go the the throttle body (mine does not have any connections at the throttle body) and then to the T connector on the upper hose.
Are you using a pressurized overflow tank or not?
Are the 2 pipes on the passenger side of the water pump for the heater?
Did you eliminate some of the hoses going to the radiator?
Can you post a pic of your cooling hoses setup?
Are you triggering the cooling fans via the ECM?
Will appreciate it greatly.

 

Here are some pics of my setup:

what connects to the 2 vacant pipes shown here?

this is the T off the upper hose

twin cooling fans

the hose under the PCV hose is the one connected to the steam pipe at the back of the cylinder heads

 

Boy, hearing a "noise" in a new engine that shouldn't be there is gut-wrenching--to me at least. All I can do is offer some thoughts and suggestions.

- Has this ticking been there since the get-go?

- When you built the motor, did you check any of the valve train clearances, i.e. rocker stud to rocker at full lift; push rod clearance in the head guide hole at full lift (my cam has a little more lobe-lift than yours so I elected to stay with 1.5 rockers and I have the exact same valve lift as you. Your 1.6 rocker will have the push rod pocket slightly closer to the rocker stud, which will bring it closer to the valve side of the head slot. Mine were very close with 1.5's.); did you check the spring retainer to valve seal clearance at full lift; if you are using stock pistons, I don't see how you could have valve/piston interference, mine had lots of room.

- Look for bent/really bent parts, you have led us to believe, more than once, that you run it hard and put it away wet, 6400rpm is on the outside edge for a relatively stock SBC. Look at all the push rods. If you kept the push-in rocker studs, there's a good chance one or more are beginning to pull out of the head.

- If you are using stock valve covers, you should have "narrow" style rockers. They are a little narrower across the nose and fit between the drippers. I have heard that regular wide nose rockers will hit slightly. I can't tell for sure from your pics, but the nose on yours looks wider than mine. Check all the poly-locks.

- Is the ticking in time with the cam (rockers, push rods, valve cover contact) or the crank (bearing, piston slap, broken ring). How is the oil pressure? No...seriously.

- Is the motor missing at all, even just a slight whump, whump, whump like a weak cylinder?

- Did you ever find that 1/4" grade 8 bolt that you dropped into the lifter valley??

I really hope you find something simple and cheap to fix. Keep us up to date.

Dave

 

I will try to answer everyone and everything, starting with Carl,
i have full roller rockers, they still need adjusting, nothing seemed loose. When dismantling.
yes, unused. Manifold gaskets, checked them and the flange gasket below.


Sanchez,
thensteam line goes to either a small fitting directly on radiator or to a tee in upper hose, however, on my set up at least, the steam pipe. Runs down passenger side of intake then to passenger side of radiator the tee in your picture I believe goes to the (optional ) oil cooler. I will get some pics when I get into garage, just having my coffee now!
yes hoses on side of water pump go to heater, I am using the jag. Overflow tank ( with a long hose as filler neck on other side)

Dave

i guess I should mention tick comes on at around 2000 rpm, all tolerances were checked and double checked! Nothing is bent and there are no signs of of any rocker to valve cover contact, I have screw in rocker studs
the tick was sometimes there at higher rpm s when new,
engine runs flawlessly, no missing at all! I even did a data log and it痴 not loud enough for knock sensor to pull timing!
These engine are know to be a little more noisy, especially with roller rockers! I spent hours goofing ticking lt1, lol but I think the fact mine is dead silent (other than injector click) at idle and ticks at around 2000 points to a bleeding down lifter.
my oil pressure stays at 40 hot or cold at idle, and jumps to 60-65 at about 1200 rpm, my ide is set to 700, as the stock 500 won稚 work with the cam I have, tuner originally set it to 900, and that had me wrestling the brake pedal to keep car from moving when stopped!!!

i think I have answered all the questions.... lol, if not Ask again! Lol

on a side note to Dave, the tick I hear should be a good pointer towards how loud( or quite my exhaust setup is! Once car hits about 3500 rpm, exhaust then becomes the dominant sound, below that, it痴 a rumble at best! And at cruise, 70 mph at around 1600 rpm( guessing as I do t know exactly) can稚 hear exhaust at all!

 

I *Hate* it when stuff like this happens!
How disheartening.
(';')

 

Sanchez, here ya go

Steam hose goes to top of radiator on passenger side, I have done the throttle body bypass, no need to heat it in Florida

Small hose from water pump to radiator

Lower rad hose comes from t stat housing

Upper radiator hose


Hose from Water pump to heater with the air bleed valve

 

I've been down this road. Scorpion Rockers are very noisy. Try crane. Big money

You need a good set of lifters like Johnson 2112 SBR. There are two companies named Johnson that make lifters so make sure you order or look into them by the part numbers. Big money.

What camshaft do you have?
If its a comp then it will be ticky. Most aggressive camshafts like comps XE line have very aggressive closing ramps that slam the valve shut. Lunati Voodoo cams have a less agressive closing ramp and are far quieter

Make sure you have good oil pressure on in the lifer galleries. You will need to prime the motor with oil pump drill apapter and observe to check. Usually low pressure shows up at cylinder 2 and 4. That side gallery has additional leaks points.

 

Im running the lt4 hotcam, It痴 all back together now, it痴 a combination of one lifter that was bad, and the noisy rrockers, can still hear the rockers, but the annoying tick is gone, I ran it without valve covers to listen and man those rockers are really noisy, , but Incan live with that noise!
Now it痴 outside awaiting a wash, but I need to be clean first!!

 

Thank you Darren. The pics cleared up my concerns with the cooling system.
I received all of the terminals and connectors from EFIConnections.
My harness is about 4 feet long so I am trying to figure out how to get it inside the passenger footwell without having to make a big hole on the firewall.
The other option is to keep the harness and PCM in the engine bay and just run the ALDL and CEL into the car.
I still have to put all the AC pieces together and it is starting to get crowded in the engine bay.
I have to clean up some of the "not used: Jaguar harness.
I purchased new Rams Horn manifolds from Summit with a reducing adapter. The manifold collector is 2 1/2 and the downpipe is 2 inch. Installed the downpipes from Suncoast and I am not happy with the result. What was he thinking when he welded both flanges on each side of the downpipe.
When I get the car running, I will let the muffler shop resolve the issues. I have less than 1/8" between the downpipe and the steering rack tower.
Right now I am focused on getting the car running..................

 

Sanchez, I don't want to barge in on your posts to Darren, but I will show you what I did, might be helpful. My engine/harness came from a 1995 Caprice and their PCM is on the left side, low, just behind the radiator bulkhead. I am using that harness (cleaned up for my purpose) and mounting position. More room on left side also. If you can zoom my pics, I attached a before and after of the stock Jag injector harness where it goes through the firewall. I left the fuel pump wire (WG) and a small number of PCM and Jag wires going through that hole and came across a nice grommet to plug the hole.

Dave

Jag harness through firewall.

 

LT1 jaguar: You are not barging in period. Your input will just give me more options to work with. BTW I have been following your build and admire the detail of every one of your posts.
You may not believe this but it seems to have less room in my XJS than in my XJ6.
I was advised by Andrew (Jag Specialties) to remove the complete Jaguar EFI harness from the front to the back just leaving the smaller 8 wire harness for the Jaguar gauges, and the wire for the fuel pump.
My car is the H&E version so I have to wire 2 fuel pumps. To do that I will have to piggyback a second relay to the existing fuel pump relay.
In order to do that I will have to remove the passenger side inner fender which I am yet to do.
The harness I got with my powertrain was totally messed up. with wires cut and twisted together with wires of different colors. Some had wire nuts and the nightmare continued through every part of the harness I went through.
Being totally frustrated, I decided to purchase a complete harness from PAINLESS WIRING WHICH IN ITSELF IS A BIT PAINFUL. Very vague instructions where it is needed the most.
I spent over an hour on the phone waiting for someone to pick up. I have tried over and over to no avail.
If I can't get the PCM into the car, I will still have to cut and shorten the harness or wrap all of the excess wiring and leave it somewhere in the engine bay. Still trying to figure out the configuration.
One question though: I am using the PCM to trigger the fuel pump relay. Should the wire from the PCM go to the ground terminal on the relay?

 

Thank you for the compliment, I appreciate that. I'll post again after a couple of surgeries have healed up a little more.

I agree with Andrew about removing the EFI harness, at least from the engine compartment. I didn't remove it all the way to the boot, just trimmed it off behind the glove box which leaves more than enough if i need an odd wire going to the rear. If and when you decide to remove the whole harness or trim it out of the engine compartment, BE SURE you identify and label the wires that are needed for the Jag to engine/PCM control (tach, speedo, gauges, ALDL, fuel pump, etc). If you are going to use relays for the ignition, AC compressor, fuel pump, be sure the appropriate "latching wire" is run through the bulkhead too.

Here are the wires that I have running through the bulkhead:
- GW fuel pump relay control
- OB park/neutral switch wire from gear selector
- TAN data M from PCM to ALDL plug in cabin
- WHITE/BLACK data B from PCM to ALDL plug
- BROWN/WHITE MIL light (check engine light) from PCM to Jag O2 sensor light on dash. Seemed like a good use for that light position.
- WHITE tach wire from PCM to WUS Jag wire to tach
- DKG/W for AC compressor clutch control in engine comp.
- BROWN/WHITE low oil level wire from PCM to BN Jag low pressure light. I did this to get low oil level info from oil pan sensor into the cabin. I don't need a light to tell me low oil pressure, but I thought low oil level might be handy if I started loosing oil somewhere.
I also ran a couple of spare wires through the bulkhead for future.

The 8-wire harness from JS came with the car, as did interfaces for tach and speedo, but no instructions for the interfaces (PO fault). Instead of trying to figure out the dip switches, I bought an adjustable interface that can adjust both the tach and speedo.

You have in-tank fuel pumps? Wouldn't the switching be done with the change over switch on the dash? Two relays, but the latch wire might come from that switch, don't really know as I only have one external pump.

My GM harness was dirty, but with a lot patience and a couple of cans of electric wire cleaner, it turned out very usable. I thought I would go with something like a Painless harness, but the cost and their unrealistic guarantee turned me off. If yours is garbage, there are other custom harness makers, or you can get another GM harness from eBay and clean out the wires you don't want. That sounds impossible at first, did to me, but here's what I did. My Son is a mechanic at the local GM dealership and he just printed out the entire 1995 Caprice PCM pin-out schematic that has each harness connector wire number and what it's called and where it goes. You can then pick out the ones that you have to keep to run the engine/trans and the few Jag circuits and trim out the rest. One caveat: decide if the PCM will control the electric fans, AC, and anything else it might do in conjunction with the Jag wiring and don't trim those wires. I trimmed my unwanted wires plenty long so that I could use them if I needed to.

I couldn't find anywhere in the cabin to mount the PCM. Luckily, my harness is long enough to reach the left front radiator support, fits well.

If you go to lt1swap.com they have pin-outs for '93 to '97 Lt1's. I have another set of PCM connector wiring info that includes the voltage on each wire in "run" and "key on". Might have got them from my Son too, don't remember.

The fuel pump relay (mine) is a 5-pin unit. The PCM puts out 0 volts at "key on" and B+ at "engine run". Because the two latching pins (85 and 86) are reversible, just attach the PCM dk green/wht to the opposite pin from the ground. The other pins I'm using are:
- pin 87 to battery (12v constant)
- pin 30 to the fuel pump
- pin 87a (center pin) to a FP prime wire used to pump up the fuel line without messing with the key and gear shift.

That's about all that my brain can spit out right now. Ask if you have more questions.

Dave

 

LT1: On the H&E version, the original fuel tank in the trunk area was modified to allow the convertible top to sit flat with the body of the car. As a result, the fuel tank capacity was reduced to about 10 gallons. To resolve this, a second tank was added and placed where the rear seat would normally go. The second tank was named the lower tank and has a submerged fuel pump and is used to pump the fuel from the lower tank to the upper tank. I had both tanks boiled out and resealed. So what we have is 2 Hall Effect fuel sending units which reads the amount of fuel in both tanks and sends the average signal of both sending units to the original fuel gauge.
Both tanks are connected via a 1.5 inch fuel hose inside of which there is a submerged fuel line from the lower tank pump to the upper tank. Baffles in the upper tank prevent fuel from gravity feeding back into the lower tank. There is also a vent pipe from the lower to the upper tank.

This is what came out of both tanks



front tank is installed inside the car. Back tank installed in trunk

this is where the lower tank sits inside the car

Refurbished tank reinstalled inside car

 

I used an after market harness. Not from painless. it was a pain!!! Pun intended. The guy has retired, so no need to mention his name.

It had mistakes. No end of trouble to fid and fix. a local tech resolved the last two!!!

I made a cradle for the PCM in the engine bay. Hug from the wing supports.


The Sun Coast down pipes fit perfectly in my car and have performed well.

I sold my harness!!! durn, should have followed Andrew's advicxe and cleaned it up and used. it.

The good part is that the plugs on the harness are different for each connection.. Just match them up and all works.

Carl

 

I hung the pcm from the firewall, and other than having to use short oil filters due to orientation of that flange I have had no issues with the downpipes

 

I also had to use a short filter because of the flange. I made up a heat shield for the steering rack tower. I already have one for the passenger side gaiter and will use an adhesive backed heat shield for the starter. I have decided to install the PCM just behind the passenger side headlamp. On the XJSC there is an air vent there( that should keep the PCM happy) and run the ALDL and CEL inside the car. I am in the process of making a bracket for the PCM . Will post pics on Tuesday
Darren: I am heading to Orlando tomorrow to pick up my driveshaft from Advance Driveline so no work for me on the car. Thanks again for the photos.

 

I looked into them as they are local, but got a better deal online, ordered through southwest speed!, however when it arrived, I had to assemble it!!! They just pick stuff from shelf and wrap up with the shaft!