I have a 2016 Heritage with S&S 583 chain drive cams with stock springs. I really like the low end torque runs great, But I hate that when the engine is warm The valves start rattling. The valve clatters real bad at idle. I have adjusted the valves at all different tensions (from 2.5 turns to 4 turns). Replace lifters 3 times, 2 sets of different push rods, New cam plate, Rocker lockers, Bored out push rod tubes and different oil weights and brands. I am thinking now to just replace the cams. I ride two up 90% of the time and under 3500 rpm. I have the Screamin Eagle air cleaner, D&D fat cat and Tune with power vision with Target Tune. I was looking at the Red line 525 or Woods 222. I have heard good things about Woods 555 but it looks like it is good at mid range. Please help me.

 

I seriously doubt changing cams will change anything. S&S cams are generally some of the quietest. That said, high lift performance cams CAN be noisier than stock.
You say it gets noisy after it's warm? Where is the noise originating.
A video would nice.

 

They all do that!! 😂🤣
Seriously though my 103 has 510g cams & between being a moderately higher lift & gear driven I was obsessive about all the racket it was making. Honestly I don't pay any attention to engine noise anymore. Spent way too much time thinking about it & worrying about it & shes been just fine. Just hit 39k miles.

 

I am going to try and do a video tomorrow. Noise is coming from rocker box area. When I am at a red light the engine sounds like a old car with a stuck lifter. I am not worried about the normal noise 2200 to 28000 rpm range. The noise is at idle up to 1400 rpm. Bike runs good. If I take Stethoscope I can hear the noise from the valve cover area/ push rod tubes. I am going to do a Cylinder leak down test tomorrow to make sure that the valves are sealing.

 

Figure anything out yet?

 

I did A leak down test, Everything was good. Installed a Baisley oil pump spring and reseated the plunger. While I was there I turned the engine over I could hear and feel a click from the front cam. Took the valve cover off and see a double rise front the exhaust valve. Like the valve was sticking. Took the rocker arm assembly off and completely disassemble it. Found nothing all within specs. Manually open an closed the valve to see if it was sticking. Took the lifters out and had to pull the exhaust lifter with needle nose pliers. I mic the lifter and found that the bottom around the roller axle was flared out. I swapped lifter with and lifter and lifter fell right in with no problem. I reinstalled that lifter in the intake side with the same results Sticking. I replace the S&S lifter with Fueler race lifters. The engine is quieter but not totally gone. I have re-adjusted the valve from 2.5 turns to 3.0 then to 3.5. The noise is almost gone. With the stethoscope it now sounds like the intake valve ticking. I will now try to adjust to 4 turns. No sewing machine noises just a noise at idle. I will keep you posted

 

Don't u just love it when a tin man has a problem and fixes it with his product.

 

Sounds like a bad hydraulic chain tensioner. The inside one. You might have rocker shaft rattle. Did you inspect the bolts that hold the rocker shafts in place?

 

I inspected the rocker arms and shafts. All within spec’s. I have already installed rocker lockers. I feel like the click was from the sticking exhaust lifter. The lifter bore was ok. The lifter was slightly oversized. Those were S&S precision lifter. I have now replace those with fueling race lifters.

 

Max Headflow quoted
"Sounds like a bad hydraulic chain tensioner".
This sounds very possible. Any way of testing this without dissembling the cam chest?