350 V8 Chicking and Clanking

I have a Chevy Beauville (passenger variation of a Chevy Van 20) with a 350 V8. I purchased it a year ago after the owner started to neglect it. Of it's many problems, there was a light clicking from the front right valve cover, identified by many as a loose lifter. With a lack of a tool set, I have put that repair to the side, until last month. Suddenly it went from a light click to a VERY loud rapid banging by what seems to be that lifter getting so loose that it's now hitting on the valve cover. I've immediately discontinued use of the van until I can fix this. My primary limitation is money, of which I have none. I have a new set of cork seals for the covers, and a cheap-o socket set from Walmart, but have yet to start any work as I detest half complete projects sitting in my front yard for months. I want to do the fix job in one shot.

Now, what year it is, I have no idea whatsoever. Here's the totality of my knowledge of the engine, and it's history (you hot rodders are gonna love this):

I bought the van a year ago. The owner was selling it because he was broke, heavy into debt, needed cash, and was falling behind on routine repairs due to a lack of money. I knew I had something special when I simply taped the gas and the wheels smoked and the G forces pinned me back into the seat.

He informed me that the wan, 1984, originally had a diesel that died on him. He had a close friend who raced trucks. This friend offered to give him a free engine and install because it "just wasn't fast enough". (his exact words, I'll remember them as long as I own this van ) This engine is a bored out 350 V8 with a modified Holley quad carb and custom transmission.

As to what the engine came out of, I have no idea. My only clues are that the original engine owner raced trucks, and the engine needed a set of spark plug cables for a 350 V8 truck, the 350 V8 van cables were too short.

Immediately after purchase, I changed the oil to get rid of the black carbon sand, and have completely changed it and the filter every 1000 miles until that disappears, then I'm going synthetic. Did the spark plugs, plug cables, distributor, fixed the busted starter, dead alternator, tuned up the carb, and the beast has appreciated my proper care of it. I've also been installing new digital gauges whenever possible.

Every mechanic I take it to, I swear, has the same response. They look at it, do a double take, ask me for any paperwork on it, I tell them the known history, they take a step back, put their hands on their head, ask me if I can take it to the original mechanic who did the hack job, I say no, and they give me a rather large estimate just to diagnose it. This is why I've been doing all of the work myself to date and installing new gauges to keep it in top health.

I've reached the limits of my Chilton's and other books on it, especially with not knowing what year the engine is, or even what in the heck in came out of or the totality of the mods performed on it. I have a 4mp digital camera, so photos for the forum are not a problem, just ask what angles you need.

I've nicknamed it Serenity after the hacked together space ship from the TV series Firefly with the big, exposed spinning thing in the middle of the engine. I have yet to find a flywheel cover that fits it (came without one), so the big, exposed, spinning flywheel on my engine and the hacked together van fits quite well.

Next, after this, is a complete electrical overhaul. There's an errant short / load somewhere that kills the battery in less that 24 hours if I don't pull the battery terminal whenever I park it. Plus, whoever did the electrical work before HAD to have been smoking crack.

I have just $20 right now and no more money as my business is suffering without a working work vehicle. If there's a mechanic in the Mason County area of Washington State who's willing to help, I can trade a laptop for labor (or PC repairs / upgrades). Otherwise, I'll take my chances with a home repair job with what I have. I don't even have a torque wrench, just a pipe wrench. And, yes, I know a lot of people are wincing at that, so am I.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Register now (free) or login to remove ads

Well First off I think that the problem was diagnosed poorly. It was probably a loose rocker arm, and not a bad lifter. Now the loud banging your hearing now is probably a bent pushrod. I've seen this happen many times. and even once to myself. You'll need to take off whichever valve cover it was that you were hearing the sound from and then you'll need to inspect all the rocker arms to determine which one is loose. When you locate your loose rocker arm you'll need to inspect for rocker ware and valve guide damage due to the loose rocker arm nut, then you'll want to pull out your pushrod and inspect it for any bends or fractures. If its not the pushrod, it could possibly be lower, but lets see what you come up with for now.

It could also be something simple as a broken rocker arm or a broken valve spring. Or that rocker could have backed all the way off. You won`t know until you pull the valve cover and check it which is a simple job. To check push rod straightness roll it on a flat surface. If the rocker is broke or a spring is it`ll be obvious right away. Check the rockers by hand and see if any of them flop around easily. If everything looks okay then I would do a compression check on that side to see if I could pin point the cause of the noise.

It's off. Wanted to gather information before that step. How tight should the arms and nuts be? Very tight without any play or a little loose?

The rods and arms seem fine from a visual inspection, but I'm not going to take them off until I know how tight they should be so I can put the good ones back on after inspection so I don't have an ever increasing amount of disassembled parts all over the place.

I've uploaded pictures of the cover off.

Thanks.

Attached Thumbnails

   

ok the adjustment on hydraulic lifters is to adjust them when the lifters are all the way down in their bores and on the base of the lobe they ride on.

zero lash plus one full turn when warm and i like to go 3/4 turn when cold to be safe.

this sets the plunger assembly inside the lifter in about the center of its travel inside the lifter.

so therefore to answer your question there is no certain tightness or torque for hydraulic lifter type nuts


there are a couple ways ot go about adjusting them all

one way is to set the engine to #1 TDC of compression stroke and do all the ones that are not on the lobes of the cam

then turn the engine 180 over to #6 TDC of compression stroke and do all the rest of them then

or, if you are good at it then you can set each cylinder to TDC compression stroke and do those two rockers

when the engine is at #1 tdc compression stroke then of course both #1 lifters will be all the way down and good to adjust


same for the #6 lifters when the #6 is at TDc of compression stroke

not quite as easy to do on a van due to room restrictions and reachig involved but i have done this many times on many different vans i have had over the years

one time i bought a 74 C-10 short wheelbase panel work van for 150 bucks, 350 2bbl and th350 in it,

the #1 intake rocker was broken the pushrod had pushed through the rocker so it popped alot

drove it 10 miles home that way, assuming it needed a cam and all

replaced the rocker and it was great. drove it for a long while

was super reliable and drove awesome shoulda kept it also, but i ended up yanking the engine and trans and parting it out and junking it, like so many others over the years haha.




have fun

the rockers really shouldn't have any play in them if one does than that one is the problem

Thanks fast68, that's what I was seeking, what they should be tightened to.

my87Z, 5 out of 8 have play in them, on just that one side. Both rockers and rods. Guess that's the next step, pull both sides and inspect all sixteen and tighten them all. If they all inspect good, see if that fixed the noise and solved the problem.

As to turning the engine, what's the best way to turn it ta TDC? Rolling it down the driveway ins't a option as the driveway, all driveways, and the roads for miles are all uphill / downhill. Nothing level, not even the foundation on my house.

I do have that exposed flywheel, can that be cranked manually (and carefully) with a prybar?

When the rods and other stuff are disassembled, what signs of wear / damage / stress should I be looking for? (example pictures anyone?) I want to do this once, and do it as right as possible with what little resources I have.

Thanks

Attached Thumbnails

 

you can use a breaker bar on the harmonic balancer, turning clock wise but i would take the sparkplugs out, and then do as fast68 said

Well, just finished pulling all rockers and rods, all checked out good and had no cracks, bends, or obvious wear. Looks like the totality of the problem was they just worked themselves a little loose. One more thing to tighten on a regular basis on this beast.

I lost my socket to take the spark plugs out, so I can't complete the repair, but the inspection is done. I'll get a new socket next time I'm in town.

I'll assume the repair is complete, successful, and done, as far as this thread is concerned. I'll make another post or thread if there's further problems.

And I only noticed now that I misspelled the thread title, it should have been "Clicking and Clanking" and not "Chicking", whatever "chicking" is.

Thanks to all those who helped out, this forum has been most helpful, and well appreciated.

Justin