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Ticking in valve train after cam change

I have a ticking in the valve train after a Leinweber E3S cam, S&S lifters, and S&S adjustable pushrods. The bike runs great, but just do not like the ticking noise. Is this normal after installing a aftermarket cam, lifters, and pushrods?

http://www.sscycle.com/uploads/instructions/51-1180.pdf does this sound like your set up? This is what I was wondering about as there are other solid acting lifters out there that will cause valve float and ticking noises
 
I remember reading about those lifters, they have a washer installed in them to take out almost all of the preload, which makes them essentially function almost like solid lifters. They require a different pushrod adjustment. With solid lifters the stronger valve springs are "only" to eliminate floating at high rpms, and not necessarily required.

With hydraulic lifters the stronger springs "also" function to pull the lifter back down fast enough (at high rpms) to allow the check valve to open in time to prevent pump up and cause the valve not to close normally. Again if not running hgh rpms or an extreme lift cam, heavier springs are not required here either.

The amount of preload that these air cooled engines require (20 flats etc) has always amazed me how one can even run solid lifter setups on them. I read on the one hand 20 flats of preload (at 24 tpi) is required with hydraulic lifters to allow for heat expansion as the engine runs longer and closes some on this 20 flats preload. So then if that much expansion is going on, how "any" solid setup could function with enough clearance to allow the same heat expansion (without mushrooming the valve ends). We never had any preload of such magnitude on our water cooled cars. Just boggles my simple mind. Obviously I am not getting some part of the equation on putting solids on engines of this design.

"IF" those are the type he has he would have (I would think) be aware of it at the install since there is not as much preload to speak of. Additionally a setup like that is going to be more noisy even if it's running perfectly. It's kinda like the old solid lifter cams we put in our old Chevys as teenagers, had the same effect.

But even if he does not have the above setup, if his valves are a bit more noisy, that could very well be normal also. Especially if he put heavier springs (for some other reason) or the cam lift is much more than OEM was.

I surmise he feels sure he has isolated the noise to the valve seats and not the rocker arm end play, which would seem to be hard to be sure of. Either one if the noise is not serious and "as long as the pushrod adjustment is correct" I would not worry about the noise. Pushrod adjustment is the key issue here in my opinion. If that is correct and the rocker end play is not rampant, the engine is ready to run.
 
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