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I recently replaced the hydralic units in my lifters for my 52 Convertible. The units I used are new manufactured units. I used to have a quiet tick after the car got up to full operating temperature.

After I finished, I had no noise for a few weeks, but it ran a little hot, so i did not drive a whole lot. The heat issue was addressed and I drove it for a couple hour long drives. The car was very quiet and ran great.

About a week ago, after a long drive, I noticed a very loud ticking noise, which sounded like a lifter to me. Once the car cooled down, there was no noise.
When I start the car, there is no noticable noise, but after about 10 - 15 minutes, again the (very) loud ticking. Seems to go away under acceleration and higher RPMs. Comes back as soon as the RPMs decrease.

I have pulled the belt with no change, so i can rule out the generator and water pump. I switched out the fuel pump with no change. Pulling individual plug wires does no affect the frequency or pitch. I pulled the valve covers and can see each valve moving, but I do not know if they are moving enough. I can see that all the keepers are in place and all the springs look good.Compression test is good across all eight cylinders, so I am assuming no bent valves. At the time I did the lifters, the valve guides seemed good.

Sounds very high up in the engine to me, like it should be valve train, but with new hydralics, I don't see how it can be.
I don't think I can attach a sound file (just tried - can't). If it is not valve train, then I think maybe wrist pin, only because it does not sound low enough to be a rod bearing.
Any ideas on how to narrow this down?

Quieting down with increases in RPM suggests you look at your oil pressures, you might want to check with a mechanical gauge. Also, what is known about internal engine cleanliness, for example has the pan been dropped and cleaned in recent memory?

I dropped the pan when I did the lifters a few weeks ago, just to seal the engine (the crank is not striking the pan - checked for that). The pan was very clean, no gunk at all. Additionally, the lifter galleys were also very clean.

I believe the engine was rebuild in 2012 because I found the car listed in an auction at that time (long before I bought it) which said it had been freshly rebuilt. Doesn't really mean it is true but I believe it because of the condition of the engine I have noted in anything I have done to it sense. Based on the auction description at the time, there are only about 4,000 miles on the car, including my own, since the rebuild.

I have a mechanical oil gauge under the hood along with the warning light in the dash. Oil pressure at idle is just at 30 lbs., which seems good. It only increases to about 35-38 under acceleration though, and I would generally expect more variance. But it seems sufficient.

Since this developed, I have tried running Rislone, which has not helped. Originally I thought this might be that a valve was hitting the head, because I did not check the clearance between the two when I replaced the lifters since I did not change or re-seat any valves, and I lacked the tool to do the measurement. But, with compression between 100 and 105 across all eight cylinders, I don't think this could be the issue.

What I find confusing is that the noise is not present when the engine is cold. I would generally think most things that cause ticking or knocking in the engine (like bearings or wrist pins) would be more noticable when cold, rather than when things heat up and expand.

I really feel it is in the valve train. Is it safe to take a feeler gauge or a step gauge, maybe at .003 or .005 and insert between the valves and lifters with the engine running (and ticking), to see if it eliminates or lessens the ticking at one of the valves?

I did pull the valve covers and did not notice that the tick was substantially louder, but the whole area is hard to get to without taking out the heater, etc.

I am also wondering what a cam bearing might sound like when failing.

Even horrible lifters are quiet when they are cold as the oil can not escape quickly. One of your lifters has likely failed. Hot and running, look for one that is sending up a little geyser of oil. Or get a stethoscope and place the point on the lifter bodies one at a time.

Sometimes you will get a noise if one of the valve keepers fell out and you didn't notice.

I pulled the valve covers again after heating the engine up. It needs t run a good bit before making noise, but then it is quite loud. All the lifter assemblies seem well oiled and there is a good amount of oil flowing through the lifter slots in the block, with oil coming out the front hole.It seems to be more oil flow through the middle sections of lifters than the ends, but there is a lot of flow throughout. In fact, I get a good amount of oil all over the place running without the valve covers.

I put my stethosope on each lifter but really can not hear one that seems to account for the clicking noise. That is I can not actually hear the clicking transmitting through the lifter. Maybe just my poor hearing.

I did note one lifter that has a kind of "twang" sound, like a spring being depressed and released. The valve spring on that lifter looks fine and the keeper is clearly seated. I took a compression reading of that cylinder hot, and it is about 15 lbs less then when i took it cold and took a lot longer to build. I don't know if that means much though. I will try listening to this lifter tomorrow with the engine cold to see if there is any change.

Assuming this is the problem lifter, is it possible to change this out without pulling the head. I used to do valve springs on small blocks by using an air fitting in the spark plus hole to fill the cylinder with air and keep the valve closed as the spring and keeper were removed. This seems like it might work with a flatty?

Two choices to replace a lifter, from above by removing the head and then the valve; from below by removing the camshaft. Not much of a choice, really.

If your car has power steering, take a listen to the power steering pump at the base of the fluid reservoir. I hear a noise like a lifter tap although it happens intermittently either cold or warm, unlike yours. I traced the noise to the steering pump after eliminating the valve train, fuel and water pumps, etc. A friend of mine that has a '53 Caribbean told me he had a similar noise that went away when he had the steering pump replaced. I'm putting up with the noise for now since it is intermittent and I see no fault in the pump's functioning.

No power steering on this one. And I did remove the fan belt to rule out the water pump and generator. I pretty much know what this is, I just keep hoping it is something else. Also, replaced all the hydralic lifter inserts just a few weeks ago and really would like to isolate which one it is to avoid replacing them again. I am surprised even with repops that I would get a failure so soon and definately worried about a similar failure after I make the repair.

Testing the lifters should easily identify which one or ones are faulty, by all reports failures on the repro lifters is extremely rare, lots of engines regularly piling up thousands of miles with them. Several ways to test them, you might be able to get your vendor for them to test them, and perhaps to give warranty coverage if one is faulty.

Did you ever verify what the oil pressure is at hot idle when the noise starts. Could be the pressure goes low after things warm up and the oil thins. If one or two of the lifters are on the low end of tolerance they would see the low pressure and start acting up. Specs say 40 psi at driving speed but nothing on idle pressure. I suspect lower than 10 could start giving some issues particularly if the bearings are worn or the metering valve into the timing chain compartment is sticking and letting any extra oil dump into there..