[RabbitFuzz]

My father and I replaced the engine in my '04 about a month ago. Bought a long block, and did the replacement from there. We normally take our blocks to our guy but to save time and some money we went the long block route.

The lifters are nice and quiet (a little chatter as per usual upon startup, but much less than before), but as it warms up to operating temp, the valves chatter. I don't know if this is something that should clear up on it's own once we get more miles on, or not. There's about 150 or so on the rebuild. Currently running Mobil 1 10W30 (i know it calls for 5W30) with a K&N filter.

Any ideas on that, and/or any similar experience. Or did I just become the owner of a noisy 3.3?

Thanks for looking

 

[Grease Monkey]

You aren't supposed to run synthetic on a fresh engine.

My lifters are nice and quiet with cold oil and then when it heats up they make a bit of noise at idle, a lot of what you're hearing could be injectors as well which are quite noisy, and once everythings warm they all make their contribution to the vg33 top end noise symphony.
Probably won't clear up on its own, not sure if you wanna spend the 400 bucks on new lifters.. Im leaving mine for a while.

 

[dejablue]

Did you soak the lifters in oil dish for 24 hours before installed them ???

 

[RabbitFuzz]

Thanks for the replies.

Couple things. As I mentioned, we have built many engines and we normally do everything with a bare block and we know what was done to it...However i can honestly say I don't know what was done with the lifters before we received the engine. According to the builder, they do not replace the lifters, but freshen them up. I would guess, or hope, they had soaked the lifters after cleaning. These are the original injectors, except for one that failed and is new. This truck never made such a racket when new (we're the original owner). I just put the synthetic in...I did have conventional, but I did wonder if there should be a few hundred more miles on the break in with it.

I do have an oil pressure gauge to put on and get an idea of what my pressure is. Being a long block, it does have a new oil pump/timing belt/water pump etc. I did replace my sump pick up after a thorough cleaning. The only other thing I could think of is the block the oil filter attaches to on the side of the engine may have a restricted passage reducing pressure?

Guess I'll switch back to conventional for a few hundred more, and I guess reaching out to the builder about the valves would be a good start.