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Mopar Performance Springs with Triple Groove Valves

You definitely have a challenge there. How were the cam bearings? What did your rocker arms and rocker pivots look like?
 
Did you do the proper cam break-in procedure?
What oil did you use for the break-in?
 
Yes id did proper cam break-in, 10w30 conventional oil,
Cam Bearings were new when I rebuilt it and no visible issue with rocker arms and pivots.

I had originally built this engine with a 331 head and 252 cam and never had this noise issue. After 5k mile road trip out west, It was painfully obvious the engine lacked that power it should have. So thinking a big part of the problem was the restrictive head, I picked up a 630, did some mild porting and installed that. At the same time I was debating on swapping the cam as well. Amazon happened to have the the 250H with lifters for about $75 new. So couldn't pass it up. With the new setup I noticed a huge difference in power, but started to notice this noise.

At first I had wrote it off as an exhaust leak, but a few weeks, I made a full exhaust system and got rid of any leaks that may have been there, and it had no affect on the sound. I converted to an electric fan. So the noise is even more apparent.
 
After just listening to the video I posted, I realized that you don't really hear the sound I am talking about. In person the rockers don't sound as noisy as the recording makes it sound, In fact they sound pretty quite. But there is a rhythmic noise that is a little faster than a 1/16th count. Similar to the speed of a header tick, and it obviously increases with rpm. Here is another video of the noise, shot from underneath the engine. It is muffled out by the exhaust, but you can hear the rhythmic tick better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__wD1Uk3lQY
 
I don't hear anything out of the norm, I would start by making/using a mechanics stethoscope.
I don't know what you consider "conventional" oil but only break-in oils have enough ZDDP for flat tappet cams.
 
RCP Phx said:
I don't hear anything out of the norm, I would start by making/using a mechanics stethoscope.
I don't know what you consider "conventional" oil but only break-in oils have enough ZDDP for flat tappet cams.
Click to expand...

Its hard to capture on video, I have used a stethoscope and the sound is more predominate on the right side and near the middle, but like any noise, it travels through connected surfaces.

Yes I know you have to use ZZDP for break in. I added a bottle of additive to the conventional oil for breakin.
 
When you rebuilt the motor, what did you set the end play at?
 
When you did the cam conversion how did you deal with the camshaft end-play? Did your 2000 have the little "tit" in the middle of the timing chain cover?
 
Interesting. I haven't dealt with the mopar performance stuff in a long time but i"ll take that part off the document.
 
So, since this thread evolved into discussing my noise issue I figured I should give an update. I have replaced all the springs with the mopar performance springs. Along the way I found that the head I recently installed from Cylinder Heads International had 4 exhaust valves and two intake valves leaking cold. So I pulled the head and lapped the valves to correct this issue. Since I had the head off, I decided to swap out the lifters, thinking that this may have been the issue. Most of the lifters looked good, but one on cylinder 1 had a circular mark on the face of the lifter. So I replaced all the lifters with new Comp Cam Lifters, added their Zinc additive with some 10w30 oil. Fired it up and went through the cam break in process. There was some noise from the start, although slight. After about 10 minutes the noise (same as the old one) came back and was louder than before. I continued with the breakin and once I was done I shut down and let it cool off. I drained the oil and put some fresh 10w30 in and fired it up, noise was still there and sounded similar to before. Drove it around about 30 miles with no change. So after no change with the noise, I decided to drop the pan and inspect the bottom end. Bearings were all tight .0015 on rods, but noticed fine metal partials in the oil pan. So looking a little more, noticed two of the cam lobes looked porous and grey and flatter than the rest. After tearing the engine down completely, found two cam lobes were flattened (or on their way). The lifters associated were severely dished with a circular groove on the face. I also found #1 and #3 cam bearings had some wear.

So long story short, Spoke with Russ and will be building a stroker with his custom pistons and free floating rods and I will be ordering a Nitrated Cam from him as well and plan to use the Crower Cam Saver lifters.

Right now I'm getting the block ready to take to the machine shop.

On a side not, I have been through thousands of threads on this forum over the last couple years and have seen Russ's name come up dozens of times, all saying good things about him. I can definitely say they are all true. Prior to making this decision, I reached out to Russ to get some pricing and weigh my options and get some answers to a few lingering questions I had. He spent over 45 min on the phone with me explaining my options and giving me a lot of history and share his knowledge. All of this was for a guy simply thinking about building a stroker. I think that says a lot.
 
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