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DougF

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I installed an Isky Z-19 cam. Valves are properly adjusted, taking care with break in, used Brad Penn Break In Oil for the first 30 minutes and changed it along with new filter to Brad Penn 20w-50 Racing "Green" Oil with a can of Comp Cam Break In Additive. I'm getting more valve clatter than I should, enough that I can hear it when I pass houses and walls that are near the street. Number 3 cylinder seemed to be lacking some power which was greatly improved with a different plug wire. The motor runs strong.

I'm using chrome moly push rods that Richard Good estimated should fit the head height.

I'll be measuring lift when I can borrow a dial indicator.

Any thoughts in the mean time?

I really don't want to be buying/swapping cams and I really don't want to use my old S2 cam. 3500-6000 rpm power range is higher than I want.
 
If you remove the rocker arm and take a look at the semi-round ends of the rockers where they hit on the top end of the valve stems, you may find that they are in-dented from previous wear. I have ground these semiround again about three times during the 52 years that I have owned my 1958 TR3A from new. The valve clearance is normal and is not noisy with the original rocker arm, rockers, pushrods and cam-shaft.
 
Thanks Don. I looked at the rockers yesterday to see if there was any wear. I had them all rebuilt last year and installed them into my old motor(quieted the motor down considerably and eliminated a random miss) and the use has only shined up the machined surface.

I'm going to tighten up my valves a little. Isky recommends .016, I'm going to try .014 and see if that makes any difference.
 
I think I solved the loud valve noise problem. Number 1 exhaust rocker rests in the yoke of the pedestal along with a spring spacer. The spacer was causing the rocker to bind in the yoke so what appeared to be a proper valve adjustment was off by quite a bit. I had a weak cylinder caused by the valve not closing entirely.
I need to adjust the valves one final time hot. I could only do them cold this evening.
I was happy with the power before, but all cylinders pulling the same makes quite a bit of difference.
When the transmission tunnel went on, the OD quit, so that will be the next project.
 
That's what I'm figuring. But it's all the work tearing the interior back out and reinstalling it because of that stupid little wire.
 
It may just be a wire connected under the floor carpet under your feet which needs to be re-connected. Carpets can slide and cause the bullet to cone apart.
 
Hmmm. The OD just started working. That puts it on the back burner for a while until it quits again.
 
I finally sorted out the problem that was causing the upper end noise. Sorting out the valve adjustment problem helped a lot, but yesterday I started the car and found the noise was still there, but not as loud. I messed with things last night with no good results and went to bed thinking that maybe I didn't tighten the screw-in on tips on the push rods.
This morning the rocker shaft came off, yet again, the tips were fine but I found wear marks on the side of #1 exhaust push rod. After putting things back in position, I found that the push rod had been rubbing against the head. Evidently, Goodparts chrome moly pushrods are thicker than stock and this caused the problem. Moving the spring spacer from the outside of the exhaust rocker to the inside solved the problem. Now it is back to the standard valve clatter.....music to the ears.
The unfortunate thing is the rocker is no longer centered on the valve. Hopefully, the rocker is durable enough to accept the additional load caused by this new geometric configuration.
 
Doug,
You may want to consider removing (by grinding) a small amount of material from the head where the push rod is rubbing and resetting the rocker to it's normal position. There is enough meat in that area so that there will be no problems.

Be sure keep the swarf from falling down the lifter hole.
 
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