Re: Hydraulic Lifter Tick

Posted by Packard Don On 2024/1/13 16:54:59

I had a 1951 Henney-Packard combination (5-main 327 with hydraulic lifters) that had an odd sound that seemed to be something between a lifter tap and a knock. After disassembly (in the car), checking and cleaning the lifters as needed, resurfacing the bottoms of the lifter bodies and properly checking the valve stem clearance (lapped the valves while I was at it), the sound persisted. The engine idled quietly and ran quietly as it did before but when gunning the throttle, the sound was there. I finally found a clue in an old Motor’s Manual that it was something called rod alignment which I had never heard of before. Had I removed the rods and taken out the wrist pins, then laying each one on its side on a flat surface and checking the distance to the surface at the wrist pin end, one of them would not have had the same distance. Apparently it’s not quite the same as a bent rod.

Obviously your issue is a lifter but I wanted to share that there are other things that can make similar sounds.