What do you recommend then? Correct me if I’m wrong but your basically saying that you think that with the install of the Baisley LMR-002 spring that you believe the engine now has too much oil pressure at idle? Which would in turn cause the oil injectors reliefs to come into play and develop piston slap?

No, I think you just are just hearing it. Not that you have too much piston to cylinder clearance, just a term, when piston turns at the bottom, it rocks. It has to get really bad to unseal rings. By then you would think it was going to blow up.. And, no, oil is not causing it..probably a little wear. Not necessarily a problem. Need a gage to check oil pressure. As designed, the Harley pump with correct oil, idle RPM will be at proper pressure when warm. (before warmup does not matter)
The Harley relief is designed to let bleed off at 35 or so to prevent over oiling into heads. The only problem too much pressure at idle is hot climates may cook oil. You do not want an installed gage. Just one to see what all your engineering is doing. An installed gage would drive you crazy.

An oil pressure gauge would be ideal at this point but unfortunately I’m SOL in that area(bike is FLHRS and I have not installed aftermarket one yet). It would help to diagnose for sure. I could wrong but I find it very hard to believe the engine would have developed piston slap just from me swapping the stock lifters back in and changing the oil pressure relief spring to a well-known product that many riders use on both stock and modified engines. Would not think more oil diverted to the engine since when the bleed releases higher, it should send more that way. However, 35 lb bleed off is sending plenty anyway. More is in just my opinion a dog with two dick mentality. Not sure why you need it. Need to search Early development of TC and why Harley discovered they needed the pressure relief in the oil injectors cooler system,

As we all know these engines need oil flow more then they need pressure, true they work hand in hand without any pressure there would be no flow, but proper flow of the oil is needed none the less(hence why I swapped back in the HD “B” lifters that I believed would have better flow with the larger hole in the pushrod seat). In saying that there are still thousands of Harley riders and forum members that have installed the Baisley LMR-002 spring without much issues of too much oil pressure at idle. Not to mention when i checked my pushrods immediately after start up and first heard the noise, i readjusted them and noticed zero lash was difficult to find(dry lifters/not pumped up fully) and even after proper adjustment I could turn the pushrods with my fingers immediately after adjustment(which tells me there was very little bleeding if any at all, another reason to point to the lifters).
Honestly I’m at a bit of a stand still. I’d love to just take her out for a little cruise and hope that the lifters pump themselves back up and all is well and goes away, but in the other hand if it is piston slap then the more I run it the closer the cylinders/pistons get to wearing/failure


Lifter bleeds off to zero clearance at the base curve from the valve spring pressure. If not, valves would not seat. They also bleed off a certain amount of course up and down the ramp. And of course, they need this extremely small amount pumped up before it's next round with a lift. Have you ever hear it with lifters down? It sounds like a ball-peen hammer on a steel table. To even hear a lifter requires over .008 clearance and then it sounds about like a fuel injector. Drive it.. . .


This is piston slap from .005 too much clearance and a slight manifold crack. The odd up and down is audio quality

 

I hear you RIPSAW. All that you mention is a possibility to the noise for sure. And yes that’s the best way to describe the noise is a ball peen hammer being tapped on a steel table. Aside from checking oil pressure, using process of elimination tells me it’s not the pump, when I inspected the new cams and shoes to see how they were doing I never even took the cam plate or oil pump out, just looked for debris in the cam chest with the cover off(And bike ran fine prior and oil pump was perfect with new cams 4 months ago) and used a pen light to check lobes, etc.. Even installed then Baisley Spring with the plate still installed, just unbolted pinion/rear cam gears, removed tensioner, remove roll pin and replace spring/plunger made sure they weren’t getting caught up, then re-installed everything, done.

Only actual parts that were touched to be suspected were the lifters and pushrods. As said bike ran fine before with just a tiny noise coming from what seemed to be rockers, which all info I found was said to be normal but it still ticked me off a bit(honestly in hind sight should have just left it alone).

Push come to shove i can take the tappet covers off, prime the lifters on the bench and re-install and adjust pushrods to 0.140. If the noise then persists then I will stop by my buddies place and borrow his pressure gauge to check oil pressure. I’m very particular and meticulous with my work(curse of being a welder by trade) so I’m certain all oil passages are clear and I should not have any issues with flow. Unless of course one of those lifters went bad in the ziplock bag on the bench these last 4 months. We’ll see what happens after all that.

 

Do not prime lifter before adjusting with an adjustable pushrod. Have them so you can easily push the plunger. Be sure you are in the middle of the base cure of cam. Come down on adjuster nut till you just fill no play up and down in push rod. Forget the silly spin. Then do the preload. (for your own head knowledge, with lifter bled down, measure plunger travel and if like the typical GM lifter usually .200 or ask the maker. Measure the thread count on the pushrod. 5/16-18 threads would be 1 divided by 18 or 0.055 pitch. So about 2 turns (12 flats of the hex) would get you a tad over 1/2 way into the lifter. The heat will never outgrow that. The bleed from the ball seat or flat crimped disk will even out from the valve spring load to a closed valve when pumped up to no clearance.

(.010 is only 4 sheets of paper which is nothing) And I would pull the retainer and make sure lifter is clean. Just don't bend retainer clip. And if you do, just tweak it out a little. Be sure to note the order and direction of the few parts in there. Usually, they may need to be soaked in Fuel injector cleaner to get rid of the crud at the top. Then you can tap them on a piece of hard pine to bring plunger out.. When you reinstall, just use the push rod to bottom the plunger a bunch to check all if good and retainer clip is firm.



Note, if I read your thing carefully, are you saying you have not run it since you heard tap. If so, run it. If you start one with a lifter bled down, it takes a few minutes for it to get up. I made the mistake of finishing up a lost owner in his attempt to do an oil change and some messing around. Seems that he had drained oil and then did a lot of cranking to check primary chain. Then got lost when he dropped adjuster nut into primary. He happened to be around when I got it all back together.

It sounded like it was coming apart till lifter pumped up. Since my work is simple hobby and I do not take pay, for now on, I make sure the owner is still not around for some starts.

Add a signature line on your bike similar to mine for year and all the letters. How many miles on it?

 

Ditto to the first part of your msg RIPSAW. Did all that and then some. Anyways I re-adjusted my pushrods to 0.125 from zero lash for the second time, just to be 100% certain I didn’t miss anything yesterday(I had just come off nightshifts yesterday and was up for 30 hours or so).

Fired her up and still had a tap but let her idle for about 3 mins, took it down the road nice and easy and before I even made it a block all noises gone. Including the previous valve train noise from rocker boxes before all of this. Runs smooth and as it should, must have just been a lifter that just didn’t pump up yet. Very simple but yet first time it’s happened to me in this engine and others I’ve had apart and back together.

Crisis averted, all is good, let this thread be good info on things to look for if others have the same issue. Even though I know it’s on here in other threads haha. Thanks again everyone