Hey everyone, I'm back with another thread as I try to put this puzzle together piece-by-piece.
Just cam swapped my 96 1500 5.9 magnum. Comp cams 20-746-9 and Hughes 1110p spring kit.
I just set fuel sync today and it started without a hiccup, but now it's making a lot of noise under the hood. I'll have a friend come check it out tomorrow, but I just wanted input from people more experienced than I when it comes to this kind of stuff. Never done anything like this before so I am liable to make mistakes (i.e. forgetting to set fuel sync, and stripping threads), but I have done a lot of research and had a helping hand from a mechanic friend. Is this normal? Is it part of the break-in process? I've only idled it for around 5 minutes so maybe it will go away with time Only thing is I am weary of anything that could go wrong (a lot) and will cut off the engine at the first sign of trouble, so I try not to run it long, if at all with a knock

Here is a URL to a youtube video I posted showing my issue:
The metal under the headers was banging up on them a bit, but that wasn't responsible. Mostly coming from cylinder 3/5 area

 

Sounds like a lifter tap. Is your oil pressure normal?

 

I'm getting good oil pressure across the board, and I made sure to put each cylinder at TDC when I installed my rockers to set the lifters, torqued rockers to 21ft lbs as required. Going to pull the valve cover and check for any irregularities. After I installed all the valve train I manually cranked the motor a few revolutions and checked to see that each valve was getting appropriate lift and each lifter/pushrod had contact with the rockers

Would higher oil weight help? I'm using 10W-30

Again, It's only occuring on one side, around cylinders 3 and 5

 

Yeah, The Dog is correct. That is lifter tick. Possibly a couple of 'em aren't pumping up.

 

Fair enough, I haven't let it run long at all so it might need time, and it has only idled. And with the valve covers removed, all the rockers have oil in them. Cylinder 7 intake and Cylinder 1 intake have no side-to-side play in the rockers, while the rest do, possibly because those springs appear compressed? And I was able to push down the rod slightly on Cylinder 7 exhaust with the rocker following suit. Could just need to re-lash?

 

There is a break-in procedure for the cam, that I think has you idle it at 1500 RPM or so for a while. Check the install instructions, and see what it has to say.

 

Did you reuse the old hydraulic roller lifters or did you install new ones? If new, they should have been sitting in oil so that the lifter bodies could fill up with oil prior to installation. If not, it may take some time for the offending lifters to fill with oil so that the ticking sound goes away, however, refer to those cam break-in instructions...

 

Yep, re-used. They seemed to be in good shape but after sitting in a box organized by their respective cylinder and intake/exhaust position for a few days, who knows. Comp cams suggest no pre-loading lifters and letting them be. Also running the truck for around 30 minutes at around 2000rpm to get everything moving where it should be. I just happened to run into an overheating issue after replacing my temp gauge sender with some chinesium junk (old one broke off when I accidentally hit it with a wrench), which has prevented me from keeping the engine running for long, as it "heats up" up to 240 degrees after less than 2 minutes of running, which I am calling complete BS since i have a new thermostat and all 20qts of coolant in the motor. It has been a complete cluster since I've got everything in place

 

Sounds like you may still have an air pocket in the cooling system to cause it to overheat so quickly or you have a defective thermostat (not uncommon these days, even new). If you have a laser temperature gun (something like this - https://www.harborfreight.com/201-in...rms-64847.html), you can point it at the thermostat housing and radiator hoses to see what the coolant temperature is actually running.

Once you get the cooling issue straight, I'd let it run for awhile to see if things clear up.

 

Thanks for the advice. It was really the gauge sending unit. I replaced that one with an OEM and it never got above 180, which is my thermostat temp. Ran @ 2000-2500 rpm for 30min per cam break-in instructions and no further issues. changed out to 40wt oil after the break-in period and it's been nothing but normal valvetrain noise and the rumble of a new cam