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Winter work and an issue

4K views 36 replies 6 participants last post by  tall terry 
#1 ·
Hey all...hoping for some help or experiences from anyone out there.....

Yesterday I installed my adjustable pushrods, did the first cylinder, waited a few hours for bleed down (took a break) and then when I checked that all was good I went to turn the engine over with the rear wheel and I hear one loud ‘clack’ noise....sounded like something hard snapped. I was sh***ing my pants! Lol. I turned it over a few more times and nothing (this is by hand). Quite and smooth. Did front cylinder and no probs.

Last night I realized watching a YouTube video that I did not use the fatter o-rings on the top of the pushrod covers. Ooops. This morning was my do over. The exact same thing happened. Same noise, same time and not repeatable.

I am thinking something just being forced into its ‘home’ on the first turn over? I don’t really know. Last thing I want to do is tear everything apart to look but I guess it’s better than finding an issue on start up.

Just so you have some background I used new pushrods, new lifters. Nothing done to rocker arms, etc. My build is an 04 dyna that I just put in 95" cylinders, 103" Heads (got some nice newer take offs) and SS510 gear drive cams. Everything in the motor spun freely before pushrods and is now....just the one noise.......

Any thoughts?
 
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#6 ·
Just checked. Nothing seems overly loose. I can spin all push rods by hand fairly easily when at TDC on that cylinder but no real sloppy play in any of the rods.

I have spun the thing by hand probably 100 times now...lol. The noise has not repeated itself and everything sounds ok. Besides being kinda hard to turn with rear wheel (assume this is normal) everything seems smooth.
 
#9 ·
most likely the adjuster section of the push rod/s,, making contact with the lower most edge of the upper pushrod tube,,, it is recommended to trim appx .350" or so off them all, to prevent this as a possible contact point...
a.standard plumbers small.pipe.cutter can be used,,, clean up the inside edge with the attached reamer... i believe S,&S has the instructions on their site if you need them..
 
#12 ·
When you spin the engine over with the wheel do you have it in 5th gear, that makes it easiest. About the only way I can think to check this is to re-do the pushrods on that cylinder and have a helper spin the wheel while you watch and listen closely, which is hard to do by yourself, from experience. I'd also do one pushrod at a time and spin over to narrow down to which rod, if it's a rod.
 
#13 ·
Pretty sure I'm in 5th...I'll double check. I'm assuming even in 5th there will be a fair amount of pressure required to turn the motor over? Or should it be easy?

Was thinking of repeating this weekend but it doesn't repeat itself now. With everything done the bike turns over with no noise or anything out of the ordinary. I'm really torn on chalking it up to 'something adjusted itself' or as tall terry said the rod got hooked up on something when moving the first time. I don't want to do unnecessary work but I also don't want to have it start and something craters. LOL
 
#19 ·
I recently had the rear tire off and didn't strap the bike down because it was going to be a quick job, i'm lazy, other lame reasons. Once the rear tire was off the bike apparently started slipping forward and was almost off the lift when I realized it. Would've been hard to get it back off the ground with the rear wheel off! I'm now anal about straps on the lift.
 
#20 ·
once i heard a similar noise,, doing the same job,, adjusting valves on a new, hotrod engine build..

long story short,, when turning the engine over by hand after adjusting both valves, on the rear cylinder, separately, when i was doing #3, the wheel met some resistence,, and as i pushed it through, i heard a ting, with a slam almost simultaneously, turned out,, the famous head setup guy neglected to set the valve to valve clearance for a radical cam with .278", tdc lift in overlap,, chipped 1 valve, and bent the other... i paid top dollar and waited months for the heads,,, after he fixed them, they ran awesome, up to and beyond the 7k rpm the engine was set to turn

this could have destroyed the high dollar build if i had said oh well it turns fine now
 
#23 ·
If I look into the exhaust port I can see the exhaust valve and all looks good there, open or closed. If I took the intake offand checked the intake you think that would be enough? I'd imagine I'd be able to see if a valve is bent this way? Not entirely sure as I've never dealt with that kind of thing before......
 
#24 ·
im just offering a different view... in my experience,, when rotating any new build engine over by hand,, any resistance, stoppage or noises that i know an engine should not make at 1 rpm by hand,,, will only make its own clearance when running 1000-6000 rpm... rhe clearance it makes could be a sky light it the top of a piston..
i would find the noise, and fix it,, before it fixed itself...
 
#25 ·
I understand that and really appreciate your help and input. I guess what I am asking is there a way to tell if I have an issue without tearing it apart again?

I have turned it over by hand a 100 times since this has happened to try and diagnose but everything sounds good. Yesterday I blew air through the cylinders and as far as I can tell (didn't want to force too much) I am getting no blow by when in TDC.....that being said I haven't secured the rear wheel so it pushes the cylinder down and then blows through intake once it moves......I don't have the proper tool to perform a leak down test.....I am assuming (perhaps incorrectly) that if I had a bent valve air would escape through the intake and it would not force the piston down.
 
#26 ·
How sure are you that the cam timing marks are popularly lined up? Myself, once installed I take a picture of them so I can assure myself later. When you installed the 95" kit which pistons did you use, flattops or higher compression domed? No matter which kind of pistons, they have intake (large) and exhaust (smaller) valve pockets cut into the top of the pistons for valve clearance, are you sure they are installed correctly? Again I take pictures. If you can say the timing marks are lined up, you have properly installed flattop pistons then you should be OK, The S&S510 is a bolt in, not a high lift cam so clearance should be OK. If you have domed pistons the clearance should have been checked. A leaked down would be the best way to check the valve seal. A compression test will tell you too but you will need to crank over the motor which if there is a clearance problem it can make it worse.
 
#27 ·
Pictures are a great idea. Especially wish I had more now since there are so many variables to be sure of. Cams are lined up 100%. 99% I installed pistons with arrow facing to the front of the bike.

I used SE 10:25.1 pistons. They do have a small done to them. I got the 95” jugs and pistons from a guy who ran the same set up with I higher cam that my 510 and he had no issues with clearance. Just to be safe I went with the stock gasket even though I had Cometic 0.30 as well.
 
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