TheSamba.com :: View topic - clicking, ticking noise 40 hp rebuild......

Mon Aug 25, 2008 12:52 am

I am so frustrated....
Here is the deal I rebuilt a 40 hp from scratch, after I put it all together I adjusted the valves to .006 cold ( I converted the heads to do so) oil pressure and so on. I put the motor in the car and it started right up and just clicked and ticked really lound at first and then it was a little quieter but still ticking and clicking.... Two thoughts in my head: Are the timing marks moved when I was assmbling the motor and focusing on the distributer drive shaft (note this is my first by myself build, but I am a machinist and I have been working on vw's 10 years and worked at a proffesional vw shop but I was only a grunt at the time... Second it might be the lifters
everything in the motor was new except the cam and the lifters....
What are your guy's thought on this situation......

Mon Aug 25, 2008 2:18 am

You converted the heads you say, so you mean you put in the "stud kits" or you mean you switched to the 1965 style heads? If it was the stud kits, what series heads do you have and what type of stud kits did you use on them?

Did you put the lifters back into the same bores as they were in previously? That's the only way I would want to re-use lifters.

Oh, and did you verify the rivets on the cam gear were still tight?

If you hadn't said you had not changed the lifters I might have suspected the old 40HP lifter clearance issue, my current 40HP I have, the previous builder gave up on it after not checking for it and it ended up that in one half of the block, the clearance was too tight and the replacement style thicker-headed lifters would hit the case, which sounded really bad in my instance.

- Andy

Mon Aug 25, 2008 5:14 am

What seat pressure are you running on the valve springs?

Mon Aug 25, 2008 9:36 am

I used a conversion kit for the heads, it had the long studs and I took them out tapped 14x2mm tap and screwed in the insert then installed the rocker shafts... the lifters are probably not 40 hp I through a rod on my last one so I had to start all over..

Mon Aug 25, 2008 10:20 am

If they are lifters from another engine then you need to check that clearance as shown above!

Mon Aug 25, 2008 3:34 pm

When you torque the rod caps on older (40HP and earlier) engines it helps to tap the rods lightly as you tighten. The early rods had bolts instead of nuts holding on the caps, and they did not self-align when tightened as the later ones did. The slight mis-alignment of the rod caps can cause a sound much like cam/lifter noise. This may be what you are hearing.

Mon Aug 25, 2008 7:11 pm

I had a 40HP rod with excessive side clearance once that made some tickety noises.

Tue Aug 26, 2008 1:43 am

well I took it apart and I have .021 or .022 thou clearence this must be the problem...... new lifter time.......

Tue Aug 26, 2008 2:33 am

So the lifter bosses were short enough then? Like I mentioned, I only had one side of my (1961 vintage) 40HP block that needed cleranced, but it was enough to cause a lot of noise!

Tue Aug 26, 2008 1:22 pm

I have clearence on both sides with the cam and lifters, boy I am scratching my head at this point maybe the cam is bent...........

Tue Aug 26, 2008 2:50 pm

New oil pump? Did you check it for clearances? Is it right for your cam gear?

Tue Aug 26, 2008 11:25 pm

Ok here is the deal I bought a new hd oil pump I checked the cam gear with the crank gear I have .005 approx play so that's good I did find out that you need to have .040 minimum from the top of the lobe to the top of the lifters there was a bulliten on this long ago... I checked the cam out and the lifters out by themselves everything is panning out...
everything but the .040 clearence that I need any other ideas??????