14 FLHTK. 31,000 Miles. Well maintained by me. Three weeks ago I did the SnS cam Plate, new cam bearings, Woods 222 Cams, larrys lifters, screaming eagle quickie push rods, SnS oil pump. Not too bad, took my time and spent a Saturday on it. Happy to see my crank run out was 4 thou. I know its not great, but not as horrible as what I hear...
Besides the god awefull racket waiting for the lifters to fully pump up (went away after 10 min or so) Engine sounded more quiet than it ever had.
Ran a few Power Vision Auto tune sessions, bike pulls fantastic... At east the first few days, I was on cloud 9. Found it hard to not keep going....
Fast forward, and nice 2up, 5 day trip to Mount Washington, 1,100 miles later and go figure on the last 5 miles before I get home and it now sounds like someone is bowling in the primary. (the top end racket is back in spades too) It didn't happen all at once, came on gradual. Oil pressure always 29-30. What I think is compensator noise gets louder the hotter the engine gets.

I'm figuring my compensator bit the dust, or is at least well on the way out.
Im also figuring I need to re-check the lash in my screaming eagle push rods.
Does anyone blue lock tight them after adjusting ?
Could the Woods 222 cams be causing the valves to contact the valve covers ?
Should I tear into to double check ?

Hate being reduced to a parts changer and not a real trouble shooter, but gotta start somewhere...
Whats your take?

 

My guess would be that the one or more of adjustable pushrods came loose... I base that on the fact that you had a quiet engine and good running engine after the work was done... Then the noise came on gradually, while putting a bunch of miles on the engine...

I use mostly solid pushrods from Smith Brothers, but they ignored my last call.... Since I have used both S&S and Screamin' Eagle pushrods... I never use locktite on them, and have never had one come loose. I do give the jamb nut a pretty firm twist...

Pop off the pushrod tube clips and check those adjustable pushrods...

Let us know what you find....

 

Except the bowling ball sound from the lower, sounds like that to me too.
Stupid question Im pretty sure already there is no way to verify that the lifter is compressed half way (or so..) without undoing the rod nuts until zero lash,
then turning the desired flats again but- my question to verify, do you simply turn rear wheel until overlap (on other cylinder) so the rods being inspected are on base circle, and they should NOT spin easily ?
Am I only trying to check that there isnt any loose jamb nuts and that they dont spin easily on the pumped up lifter ?

 

I pull the plugs, put the bike in high gear, and spin the rear wheel to put the cylinder I'm going to adjust at top dead center, making sure the pushrods/lifters are both on the base circle.

If you are unsure whether you found proper zero lash when you adjusted them last time, the only way to verify it is to start again.

Once properly adjusted on the base circle, and you give the lifters time to "bleed down" to the adjustment, you should be able to spin the pushrods with your fingers... then it's safe to rotate the engine to do the other cylinder, or start the engine..

If it ran for awhile, with no lifter noise after the initial install, you probably got them pretty close... I would be looking for a loose pushrod..

If the pushrods are all OK, then time to pop off the outer primary cover to inspect it, if you suspect the noise is coming from there...

If the pushrods and the primary are both OK, you may need to open the cam chest to check your work...

It's really hard to say from an internet post description, what it could really be..

 

I second your conclusions. I would address the compensator and check the pushrods. I used blue Loc-tite when installing them in my recent build.

 

Nothing loose on the push rods...
Don't have another primary cover gasket . You all replace the gasket every time ?
Added 2 flats to the intake and exhaust on the front cylinder only... The back cylinder is quiet...
doing nothing is worthless, two flats shouldnt hurt... See some folks go for a little more preload than the 2.5 turns...
Hopfully that gets that tap tap noise quiet again. If it gets worse, Im gonna have to pull the valve covers and check for clearance issues...
I did the rocker lockers many, many moons ago, so I know its not that issue...
Had a few hundred miles of bliss, with a perfectly quiet top end...

For the bottom end noise, think Im gonna just go parts changer and swap out compensator... Im betting the cost of a dark horse comp that the springs in the original are shot..
While in there go with one of the manual chain tensioners and just be done with it...

 

I would try to see if the self adjuster is between adjustments first. Do a few rapid 1st gear pulls to 4K rpms and then let off quickly. See if it ratchets to the next click and solves the issue. Free and could solve the issue..

 

Just saw this on the other thread lol... Didnt even think about trying it...
bottom end noise did get worse when engine was really hot... Makes sense.. the chain should grow when hotter....
Next time I have enough saddle time, I will do the 4k and decel trick mentioned...
Thanks for the wake up.....

 

I have used the same outer primary gasket 3 times and it still doesn't leak. Be sure to inspect it to ensure it didn't rip/tear when removed....

 

Just an small update, rode for half an hour today and top end is definitely better, but not as amazing as the first few hundred miles after the work... if it doesn't get worse when thoroughly heated up, i can live with it and smile.... There was zero bottom end noise but again, it only shows when thoroughly warmed up...

Gonna take the stethoscope out now, hell may be what I'm hearing is the rear jug... so very nice to be close to what i call a fantastic sounding engine... if two flats was it on the front may be, just may be... stay tuned..