Digging into disassembly.

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Sorry! It's actually a 1950 2302 with a 327. The nuts on the car are 7/16-20 and have a width of 3/4". It seemed as though my 327 would share the same nuts as were being discussed previously in the thread. Sorry again, and thank you in advance.

The thought of something wrong with the spring/seat did cross my mind. That said, I did order new valve springs and seats, too. I basically ordered all the valve components that were non-specific to whether it was an exhaust or intake valve. I did read up on installing new valves and the valve guides, reaming the guides and refacing the the valve stems in the manual... this was actually why I initially opted not to buy the gauge the Merritt.

Are you referring to this:https://www.parts123.com/parts123/yb.dll?parta~dyndetail~Z5Z5Z50000022d~Z5Z5Z57221~P30.00~~~~S6SZ1CSUP075109116806a~Z5Z5Z5~Z5Z5Z50000022D

Unfortunately, I didn't do a leak down test, but I'm sure there's going to be some leakiness. We'll see how this goes.

Thanks for the advice on all this, everybody. Tons to consider with all this, and lots of "damned if you do, damned if you don't."

I did confirm my "tick" is coming from the valve with the makeshift shim with a stethoscope. It seems to have the telltale signs of having collapsed (lifter stops spinning intermittently, all the others continue to spin). When the engine is off, the valve spring can be spun by hand. The last time I did a compression test (September 23, 2022), my compression numbers were all 87-92. The car truthfully runs much better now than it did then, but there've been numerous other things I've done to it in the meantime. I doubt the compression numbers have changed. I've put MAYBE 200 miles on the car since I bought it. I've changed the oil maybe four times? Doubtless it needs a proper date with a good mechanic. I'm currently running full synthetic 10W-30 (Amsoil if that matters) without additives. Gas is ethanol free with some MMO. Seems to be what most everybody uses.

I have a couple NOS hydraulic lifters on order, along with a side valve compression tool, along with another tool for installing the keepers. My plan right now is to start by addressing the one lifter I know to be problematic. If I can get the hang of disassembling and reassembling everything with the problem valve, I'll dive into the others, working to clean the lifters and lap the valves. If I find I'm hitting my mechanical limit and feel like I'm going to make something worse, I'm going to hit the pause button and call in more experienced hands. It's a bit by bit approach, but it's where I am for now. Again, I appreciate the advice, everybody. Thank you!

Rehashing this - cylinder head nuts/washers:

Would these be appropriate for the cylinder head, or overkill/too weak for the application? The dimensions of the nut match what's on the car, but they're somewhat taller than what's on there:https://www.mcmaster.com/90521a110/

And for the washers, these seem to match the dimensions of what is on the car currently:https://www.mcmaster.com/98180A140/

Thanks!

All good questions. I dropped the pan last year and found three valve keepers. Other than that, nothing notable in it besides some sludge. No knowledge of the history, other than to just guess that the engine has been out before (the weld mark on the rad cradle being the giveaway). But again, no idea why or when.

Ha, but it's funny you say that... been perusing the interwebs for new lifters... and the rest of the valve components. But, will try some valve ease and see where that goes. Thanks, Jim!

This is what the third valve from the front looks like sitting still with what looks like the makeshift shim.

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Hey all. 1950 2302 with a 327 and Ultramatic, 7 qts. fresh 10w-30 last week, new filter, Carter 643SA, 6v, points, mechanical pump... unmodified. Trying to get opinions on what (if anything) can be done to address a ticking lifter while the engine is assembled. The tick has been there since I bought the car (last year), and only becomes noticeable when the engine reaches operating temperature. The idle does seem to be effected by this tick, though it's otherwise smooth. Under load - accelerating and cruising - it's outstanding.

Here's a video of the rear eight valves - I believe the culprit is valve number three from the front (which also appears to have a shadetree shim between the lifter and plunger).

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o8heOiQPoFbxdV1ipD13-cz2pwFfKwRW/view?usp=drive_link

This is the vehicle driving earlier in the day before I took the video of the valve train:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p2JFmbaROMmPvw9vjiMblkz887hryG4g/view?usp=drive_link

Thanks in advance.

Hey Jim. Thanks for the response! Totally agree, the cradle was cut at some point for the engine to come out, but it's all welded back correctly. This is an oddity in the design of the radiator support - the more common setup (that I've seen) has the radiator in front of the support (like the 2365 pic below), rather than behind it. So the gap is closer to four inches because the current splasher ends before the cradle, leaving the top pretty much wide open.

For reference, I attached the photo of mine with the wrong splasher, and a photo of what the right splasher looks like with this cradle/rad setup. You can see the extension that goes beneath the top of the cradle and extends the splasher to the radiator for a more complete seal. The lower splasher is there, but it's missing the R and L black-to-frame splashers. Who knows if it'd make much of a difference. It ran cool today (never above splitting on the gauge), but to be expected when it's 46 out, haha!

Anyways, thanks again for the response. Just wanted to test the waters here to see if anything was out there before I go to the big vendors.

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Hey all - looking to see if someone has a top rad splasher (30.87498) for a body #2372, shared only with bodies 2372-75-79-82-85. I bought the current splasher from one of the larger vendors who seemed to think it was the correct splasher. I kept it because the engine was running hot. This splasher helped, but I'd like to get the right one on.

The pictures show what I have. The difference in the splasher that I need is that it has an extension that goes beneath the cradle to the top of the core to ensure that much of the air coming through the grille is going through the rad. I don't have any fabricating skills (or tools), so I'd like to see if the real thing is out there.

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