ok I have a question, this is my first harley although I have worked on a couple others for friends and family.

I blew a Lifter in my 93 EVO last fall, and collected the neccessary parts over the winter. The jugs looked excellent, still had a little cross hatch in them, the heads looked good, but I cleaned them up and had the valves done.

After a complete tear down for repaint, I am finally riding the last couple days, and its hot and humid, like 90-91 degrees and 80-85% humidity. My concern is running down the highway at 70, 3000 RPM, I hear a faint metallic click or rattle that I can change with the throttle. Cant tell if its a little lifter noise or its pinging.... a little lifter noise...so what, its an EVO, but if its Pinging it could do more damage. I have tried to make it ping by lugging the engine hard in a higher gear and got nothing. Last night I backed the timing off (retarded it) a couple degree's, no change.

So I am leaning toward a little valve train noise.... in the next day or 2 I am going to readjust the push rods now that I have a few hundred miles on it. Oh yeah, its runs 25-30 lbs oil pressure at highway speed, about 10 lbs at idle.

Your thoughts? When an EVO pings is it loud like a car engine?

engine specs
1340 EVO
Stock bore, pistons, heads, compression is 115 lbs in both.
Comp EV3010 cam, about identical specs as an Andrews EV27
Screaming Eagle adjustable pushrods set at 2 and 1/2 turns after zero lash
new HD "B" lifters
New torrington cam bearing
flushed out the engine of any possible metal filings, rebuilt the oil pump.

 

Blew a lifter?

As in there is a potential for pieces to have remained in the engine?

 

yep.... needle bearings disintigrated in 1 lifter, 99 of the filings were in the bottom of the cam chest, and thats why I added I flushed the engine and rebuilt the oil pump. I rode less than a mile at slow speed after it the lifter went.

 

As I'm sure you know, 3000RPM going 70 MPH is no recipe for pinging. Harleys are noisy. My guess is valve noise and or compensator sprocket noise, which I hear all the time.

 

I've spent the 20 years I've owned this bike perpetually chasing noises. At 70 MPH it's nearly impossible to pin down where a noise is coming from.

I doubt what you describe is pinging. That would be more likely to occur when suddenly opening the throttle at low engine speeds, say 50-55 MPH in 5th gear. I can't really say without hearing it, but it sounds like valvetrain noise from your description. All Evos (and other Harleys) make a lot of valvetrain noise. Thing is, after an engine failure, you're sensitized to noises, and listening for any sign of trouble.

Been there, done that. That happened to my first engine at 46,000 miles. Flushed the engine, replaced the lifters, cam bearing and cam and rode it another 40,000 miles.

Your cranking compression is pretty mild, so pinging is unlikely. Not sure what ignition you're running, but if you still have the VOES hooked up, it wouldn't hurt to check it. Mine failed this year, so it does happen.

 

Thanks guys... I think you're right. i had a mild engine failure so I am a little on edge about the noise, and yes, EVO's are noisy, I just have to learn to NOT let it bother me. I popped the pushrod tubes last night, will reset the adjustible pushrods tonight to compensate for any breakin wear after 3-400 miles and deal with it. The darn thing runs great, has decent pulling power for a heavy bagger.

 

My rear pipe heat shield was hitting the passenger floor board mount and sounded like the compensator was coming apart. Drove me nuts until I started grabbing things and moving them around. Also I have the spark plug covers and when I loose a set screw, they rattle and sound just like a wrist pin clip has failed. I also throw my keys in my right side windshield bag and they'll rattle at about 65-70 mph.
Rattles on these suck to track down.

 

A grenaded lifter and all the associated **** would make anyones ears go to
max. during the first rebuild rides.
I think your on the right track by double checking the adjustments on the adjustable push rods . If they are to your liking and everything else seems ok , you should be OK .
There is nothing left for you to do but to let her run . If **** happens you will be the first to know .
Run short trips and not a long travel until you feel confident.