FE light tap & rattling noise

[RICK LAKE]

DanEC Dan I have been running and racing the cheap Fel-pro 1447 for 15 years. We have the same header setup. Here's waht I have done,
Remove the header pipes one bank at a time. get a flat edge piece of metal and check that the head is flat from front to back exhaust port. You can also look at the flanges on each header pipe and see if they are flat too. If not a little light grinding to true them up.
I have tryed and run headers on different motors and cars from many years
Choice 1 I double seal the gaskets with Hi-Tac and let dry. Install the pipes with a coat of antiseize on all 4 pipes. Want a good 1" wide coating. Them install the mufflers and mount them in the rear. tighten the bolts for the header flanges 5 pound at a time until 35 pounds is met. Do this for all 4 pipes. Repeat on other side. Run car for a couple of minutes, outside and let cool off. Retorque bolts again to 35. That should do it. Easy road test a couple of times to help the antiseize seal the pipes.
Choice 2 Reused the copper gaskets with Hi-temp RTV. It's an orange color or black. This is for exhaust ONLY. Do the same thing as above. Make sure you add a little antiseize to the bolts that go into the heads.
Choice 3 Old school is soaking the 1247 in water for 10-15 minutes and then installing them on the motor and drive and soon as possible. retorque them as soon as possible.
Your lifters, I don't know which ones are in your motor but any antipump up lifter don't adjust well. I have run Crane flats and rollers in my motors. Even tryed the adjust at idle with motor running and they don't. I do run a higher oil pressure and 15W-40 oil. IMO the best way to setup the rockers is without any oil in the lifters. Anti pumps don't bleed down well. I know this is a pain but would tell you to remove all the lifters and remove the oil from the housings. reassembly them. Some guys like the simple wire clip that comes with them I like to change the clip to a retain clip that you need pin pliers to install. This is what the higher rpm lifters use. Reinstall the lifters and do the basic setup of lash. I like contact and 1/4 turn on adjuster, for street motor. For my motors and racing with hydros I go .015" plunger depression. This helps when turning over 5,700 rpms and the lifters pumpup. The valve will still close and the power drop off is less. My max rpm lim it is still 6,200 rpms.
Last note and question, does the heads have oil limiters in them? You maynot be getting enough oil. The shafts could be upside down and not oiling the rockers. Also IMO a .80" oil limiter should be used for the best overall oiling of valves and springs. When you remove the rocker covers check for any wear of blueing of the pushrods or adjusters on the rockers. This is a sign of no enough oil getting to the correct points. I reheard the video again and this motor with hydro lifters is way too noisy, even with exhaust leaks. call if you want to talk about this. Rick L. 7322543536 in the evening

[priobe]

Why not try a set of Remflex gaskets. If you truly do have an exhaust leak and both surfaces are pretty much flat, Remflex will seal it.
But since the headers are off make sure surfaces are flat if not mill them down on a large belt sander length of the header

[DanEC]

Other than carefully setting the lifter preload to .035 to .040 roughly (cold) I haven't really dug into the motor. Trusting Keith and his guys to have put it all together right. The heads are 61 castings and he worked them over top to bottom so I'm sure the exhaust side was checked and lightly milled as necessry.

I can't really do much to the sealing surfaces at this point. I have full length undercar exhaust and removal starts with the tail pipes and it's a ***** to get the whole thing removed - just reinstalled it. The headers pipes are all individual - no common flange. I checked them out before installing and they looked great - flat. Motor is in the car - clearance is tight - not planning to remove anytime soon. Probably just install the Fel Pro 1442 gaskets and drive it for awhile and see what happens.

I would have tried the Remflex but it's virtually impossible to order gaskets for the early LR heads on line because the gasket producers don't differentiate between the high port and the low port heads. I pretty much have to order by picture, judging the distance between the upper bolt hole and the top of the port opening. As a result I have a new, un-used set of SCE low port copper gaskets if anyone is interested.

[DanEC]

I played around with it some more today and after a short drive I decided it is a little better after all. After it gets good and warmed up the ticking is pretty much gone although it still has a bit of that strange light rattle when coasting down - kind of like what Kevins2 posted. I did see a slight sign of a collector leak on one pipe when I first started it up - in a strong light I could make out a light wisp of smoke rising from it for a minute or two (probably from the sealer cooking off). it ticked a bit after first starting too so maybe it's this joint and right now it's sealing off when it gets hot.

I tried the tissue paper on the end of a piece of wire but didn't have much luck with it as touching any part of the car made it shake with the engine lope and also I had to contend with the alternator fan and the cooling fans cycling on. It looks to me like the exposed part of the exhaust gasket around cylinder 1 is getting carbon discolored already so I just don't think these copper gaskets can seal up right. Hopefully the Fel Pro ones will be here in a couple of days.

[DanEC]

Installed the Fel Pro gaskets today and thought I figured things out at first. I found that the last time I put the no. 1 header pipe on, it slipped in on top of the header bolt washer rather than under it. So the washer was trapped between the head and the header preventing a good gasket seal. Everything is black under there so until I hit it with a light it wasn't evident. Self-induced error and explains the large carbon tracks on the lower side of the gasket on that cylinder. Took care of most of the noticeable tick but it still have a lot of what seems to be valve train rattle. May be time to check with the builder and see what they think.