Cam Follower Replacement?

[Dave FOrd]

Could someone please help by answering the following question? My 450 has developed a clicking noise that I suspect is a noisy cam follower. Does anyone know if the hydraulic cam followers are replaceable without removing the cylinder head? Thanks

[mongoose]

yes,the followers can be replaced without removing the heads,and the cam,pushrods,rockers etc.worth mentioning that its not considered good practice to change either cam or followers on their own.take a look at the rpi webside for more info and a very helpfull guide to many rv8 areas.

[peter miller]

It might be worth removing the rocker cover from the side which the noise is coming from to check for any excessive wear on any of the rocker pads, as this could also be the cause of the tapping.

[TT Tim]

Are you sure it's a follower, I've not experienced it myself but it has been said to me that a leaking exhaust gasget can produce a ticking noise too.

Just a thought.

Tim

[targarama]

Yes, check the exhaust manifold gaskets.

[Dave FOrd]

Thanks guys all good advice, pretty sure it's the valve, cam follower area but sounds are difficult to track down.

[flintstone]

Aha!

My chance to offer one of the few nuggets of advice that I possess.

Could it be an injector? I've spoken to two people who had a similar problem and that's what it proved to be.

[GreenV8S]

flintstone said:

Aha! My chance to offer one of the few nuggets of advice that I possess. Could it be an injector? I've spoken to two people who had a similar problem and that's what it proved to be.

Injectors are surprisingly noisy (well I was surprised anyway!) so you could probably hear this with the naked ear and it ought to be quite obvious through a stethoscope. Failing that if you yoinked the injector leads off one at a time the noise would stop when you got to the noisy one?

[flintstone]

GreenV8S said:

Failing that if you yoinked the injector leads off one at a time the noise would stop when you got to the noisy one?

Elementary my dear Watson and exactly what I shall be doing in a day or two in search of a mysterious noise of my own.

[sharky55]

Does the noise happen on overrun or on the throttle? overrun> The rockers can fall apart, the part that opens the valve can break off the rocker arm although this is quite rare, check the push rods for straightness, then look at the cam, the two cam lobes closest to the rear of the vehicle are prone to wearing due to oil starvation, you can check this without taking the heads off, remove the inlet manifold & valley gasket n you'll get a birds eye veiw of whats going on in the camshaft department. Hydraulic tappets rarely fail, same again, this is probobly caused by oil starvation or using Mobil 1.
> On the throttle:- You're looking at big end or small end damage, although this would point to heavy track day abuse, oil starvation or very high millage!