Last night I installed a set of 100lb valve springs from Kirban. I followed the instructions exactly and torqued the rocker arm assembly to 30ft/lbs. All of the keepers were in place and everything looked good. When i got the valve covers back on and put everything back together i cranked the engine over for about 45sec to build up oil pressure to make sure everything was good and lubed. When i started the car i had over 50psi of oil pressure (which is normal) but the engine was making some horrible sqeaking and ticking sounds and repeatedly pegging out my knock gauge (i didnt have Turbo link hooked up). I let the car run for about a min. thinking that mabey the oil had just not reached the rocker arms yet, but the sound worsened so i shut it off. After listening to it while it was running i knew that the sounds were definitely coming from under the valve covers. So i immediately began to take the valve covers off again to see what was going on, i feared that i had really messed something up or bent a push rod. Even after a very close inspection, i still cannot find anything wrong with the engine. everything is still torqued down to spec. and looking great. I know that it has to be something simple that i am not seeing or doing right. Are all of the push rods the same length, or do they differ somehow? That is the only thing i can think of that i could have possibly done wrong. Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated!
Thanks,
Bill Ritter,19
Never seen this on a Buick before but Chev had a real problem with it in 1974. If the fit between the rocker and shaft is real good oil can't get in there. If the noise is comming from the rocker arms try this. Remove rocker shaft and soak it in GM posi additive # 1052358. It 74 on Chev engines we put a full bottle of this on every oil change untill noise did not occur.Generally around 6000 miles it went away.I wouldn't add a bottle to crankcase, just soak shafts in it then reinstall
Thanks for the reply Phil! I took your advice and soaked the rocker shaft in a mixture of the posi additive and Prolong oil treatment (I love that stuff) and put it back together. When I started it up it purred like a kitten. no noise at all!
Thanks again,
Bill
GM posi additive # 1052358 is amazing stuff. It has a percentage of whale oil in it and will get into tight places when nothing will work. It's the only additive I have found that keeps posi clutches from binding on turns and reduces wear. GM bares this out because at one time they discontiued it and then reinstated it because nothing else would work.