Re: 1951 300 ticking noise

Posted by JeromeSolberg On 2022/11/11 15:10:29

The main thing is this:

You use the spring compressor thing to compress the springs. You don't have to take off the manifolds, you can do it through the fender access panel, which let's you reach underneath the manifolds.

After you compress the springs you need to take the little "keepers" out. It's easiest if you have one of those little "magnets on a stick", typically a magnet on a little extendable rod.

However, you want to make sure the "keepers" don't fall into the oil holes in that gallery. Otherwise the keepers might drop into the oil pan. You will want to stuff the oil holes with a rag. You get some of those shop rags, you know, the red ones. It's easiest if you cut a few of them up into some squares, I think if I remember correctly something like 3" square. Then stuff them into the oil holes.

After you get out the keepers everything should come out pretty easy. You have to use a little bit of muscle to force the springs out past the lifters, but not much. Then the valves come out the top. Make sure you keep all the valves in order, so you can put the valves back in the same place you took them out. I put them in little zip-loc bags, one assembly (valve spring, valve, keepers, valve spring top and bottom saddle) per bag, numbered per cylinder, noting that intake and exhaust valves are different sizes.

Before you do all of this, if you haven't taken off the head, it might be a good thing to do a compression test on all the cylinders. If the compression comes out low on a cylinder, you can try putting a bit of oil into that cylinder, if it gets better then that's rings, if it doesn't then that's valves.

If it's rings, well, you'd have to take off the oil pan and various things to do that, but it can be done in the car if you really want. IF it's valves, you have some options there, all the way down to just touching up the seats with one of those hand-held valve seat lapping tools. It's also good to check the valve guide clearance, if any of the valve guides are "loose", well then those can be replace in the car as well. There are some threads on that, but the main thing is that you can do it with some threaded rod and some wrenches.

Hopefully all you have to do, though, is just replace a few lifters.

To put the valves back in, it's the reverse process, but note that it's easiest if you get some grease and put grease on the keepers, it helps to hold them in place as you de-compress the valve springs. Again, make sure you stuff the holes so you don't accidentally drop the keepers into the oil pan.

If I remember correctly, the simplest method is to put in the top valve spring saddle, then the valve spring, then the spring, then the bottom valve spring saddle. That can be a bit tricky but there is a method where they "snap in" pretty simply.