ok heres the scoop, i just got my first harley which is a 1977 shovelhead with a 88' HD motor newly rebuilt.
i have a total of 230 break in miles on this motor and then i started to hear some noise from the top of the engine, rocker boxes i think and it would get louder the more i rode and also it increases when the throttle is increased right now i 50w for break in and i'm going to put in 60w today, and i never went over 55mph. yet. my question is
1. is this a normal noise ? and if not what is the cause and how can i fix it?

 

Excessive valve train noise is not normal. If the engine was out for rebuild, then I would suspect that your oil lines are mixed up and your not getting oil pressure.

 

but i never heard it until just know, and thats over 200 mile that it didn't do that

 

Oops, sorry I obviously didn't read that part. It's not the lines so maybe it's the pump. Do you have an oil pressure gauge? You need to make sure that the pump is pumping. Something like this is hard to diagnose without seeing and hearing the problem. Look inside your oil tank, you should be able to see the oil flowing with the bike running. I would deffinately think this is an oil supply problem or excessive valve lash..

 

after a little ride i look in the oil tank and it looked froothy like it was churned up or something again "newbie" here, as far as oil pressure no i dont have on on it, when you talk about valve lash , you fix that by adusting the pushrods correct?

 

I'd start with valve adjustments...
What kind of oil ? Synthetic or petroleum-based?

 

valvoline 50w racing oil - sorry for the spelling

 

step one: change your oil........ put in an oil made for an air cooled v-twin.
step two: check to see if you have solid lifters or hydraulic (solids get louder as the engine warms up)
step three: hook up an oil pressure guage and make surethe oil pressure increases with the rpm
step four: if you have hydraulics, and your oil pressure is good, check to make sure you can't feel any spongyness in the lifters checking like valves (ie. rear intake valve at highest lift, check the front intake) the pushrod should spin freely but have NO up and down movement. if all checks out, test again with the engine fully warmed up.

step five: if everything checks out okay, bring the bike to a GOOD mechanic that you trust.

 

I also have had the same noise problem I did some tradeing and ended up with a 1981 superglide and I was aware of the noise and thought it would be an easy fix (but) you know how that goes.I striped down the whole top end I removed the jugs and checked piston rod for end play and looked at the heads real good .I was told to check for coil bind,where you see if your vavle guide has enough clearance so when your valve opens its not running out of travel and hitting or stopping at the top of valve guide.every thing looked good and after I reassembled it.I found out It was still there,so I started looking at a clutch problem I also had and found my compensator had to much play in it the sprocket could be moved around very easy.the splines are all banged up and the cover was an after market peice of junk.so Im currently wait for parts I ordered and I believe this should be the end of my noise problem.it did sound like it was comeing from the vavle train,when I first started to ask around about my problem I was told to look at my compensator also but I thought that it sounded like a valve train issue so I didnt check it.now I wish I would have.also I found a web site that helped me with my top end.here it is. http://www.hotrodsbikeworks.com/tech...ocker_arm.html

 

you could also loosen the oil line {with the engine running} which runs between the rocker boxes to see if your getting oil on top but I would guess you are or your rocker arms would be seized by now.
check the rocker boxes head bolts and barrels for correct torque then set the valves to specs.
When I ran hydraulic lifters and one went bad it made an awful noise.
also had a loose top engine mount that made a rattle that sounded real bad.
let us know what you find.