It would be interesting to see where you got the issue of cooking the oil from because it's likely not correct.. From "The Harley Davidson Century", page 298, they interviewed the HD engineers directly. They had issues with oil temps before production and were worried out having to add an oil cooler. The big issue was that the lifters were flowing too much oil to the top end, They cut the flow and the oil temps dropped.

AFAIK, there was alway pressure control valves in the oil jets. Good ol' Donny Peterson reported about the oil jets having check *****. I've not seen any production bulletins or complaints about oil issues on the 99 bikes. I'd bet part of the reason they were there was to keep some oil pressure to the lifters. They are at the end of the passage that feeds the lifters.

I referred to sumping as I thought that is what you thought might be part of issue with too much oil out of the piston jets.

The OP use an aftermarket pump with higher flow that I would assume on both sets of gerotors. More feed / more scavenge.

 

Thanks again for all great replies, due to time zone difference I just woke up here and found this long discussion with a lot of good info.

I have not considered too high oil pressure at idle could be a problem, I thought the higher the better.. I don't really know how to adress it either, I use the stock relief valve and spring in the cam plate. I tried running an axtell valve but that sent the running pressure above 65 psi and that did not seem right so I went back to the stock valve.
Only way to lower the idle pressure I think is to lower the idle rpm, I can try that. But then again there is not much idling going on when I ride.

 

Cam gear lash could be the issue, I have used gears basically since day one so I don't know what it sounded like with chain drive.

Going back to chain is not really possible, I would need to buy new cams, the stock ones would not work with the compression the engine has now.

I measured crank runout before installing the gears, it was 0.0015"

I did not feel any lash in the gears when I installed them, I was rather thinking they were too tight. I'm guessing the aluminium cam plate expands a bit when hot so the distance between the cams increases maybe introducing lash between the gears.

I'm still running the stock cam plate, would the aftermarket ones have less heat expansion?

 

The stock heads have the dual springs I think, but my new heads have single beehive type springs.

The springs in the new heads are clearly harder than the stock ones, at 178 lb seat pressure. They allow .650 lift and my cams only have .550, could there be a mismatch there making some kind of resonance?

I have noticed that the general valve noise gets louder at certain rpms and also louder when I release the throttle, I think that part of the ticking is related to the stiff springs.

But the main noise I'm chasing is something different.

 

Idle oil pressure is not the reason for your tic unless you're stuck in traffic in a hot area. Only then could it actually damage the oil by overheating it witch would sometimes thicken it or shorten it's lubrication lifecycle .

Obliviously someone would not know this and it was Harley's way of making sure they didn't have warranty issues while it was under warranty.

They did the same thing sorta with oil recommendations. When they first came out with SYN 3 high detergent (partially synthetic I think) oil.

They said use in in all three holes. However, a few years later, the kicked that back in a lot of owners manuals and said it was second choice for the non filtered transmission and primary. Interesting however, someone noticed it was still in some models.

That says to me they had had some warranty issues with SYN three.

That is just an opinion.

Final though. Just wonder how hot your oil was when it ticked. Nothing else. It would not be because of the oil pressure at idle.

I had read that about why there were valves in the oil injectors that didn't allow them to work at idle. And they are in there. They weren't in the first models of the engine.

If someone thinks the stock 12 or so ( witch is mainly controlled by oil grade and filter) and the maximum 35 (controlled by pressure relief) is not enough fine. Go for it.

Guess I need to find that Engineering article and have it read if I ever say that one so people can fuss at that and not me.

Below is one article on the development of both the early overheating preproduction and I think the later too much oil in the head region.

They are two seperate issues handled by Harley.

I don't think however this article tells exactly how they completely addressed the heat issue. Think it was in Wicikpeda and came from an article the publisher harped on copyright.

https://www.cycleworld.com/harley-da...tory-big-twin/

 

The oil jets weren't in the first prototypes but was added early on.. I've seen nothing about relief valves added.. If you got it from wikipedia, it's most likely wrong. They are wrong about a lot of stuff.

Camaron Does a good narrative on progress. One minor issue is that in 2004 he seem to indicate that the cranks were cast. They may have been precast but the main issue was that forging process changed from hot forged to cold which reduced cost.

 

It started when the op went to gear drive cam shaft. There, ya have it.

 

I haven’t read the whole post once again, but has anyone talked to him about rocker box clearance with the beehive springs and the 650 cam lift.

 

Have tuned in a couple of times but have not posted an opinion so I thought I might opine on the matter.

I am inclined to attribute the ticking to cam gear backlash for a couple of reasons. The OP's description of "ticking" applies; cam gear backlash is the only thing the OP has not ruled out and the OP says he "could not feel any lash in the gears when installed"; backlash was not measured. There has to be some backlash, Andrews says at least .001" but not more than .002" and Andrews does offer an over/under size pinion gear to adjust backlash. The OP should download Andrews instructions on how to check backlash and see what's what. Or get some Plastiguage and use that to measure lash; measure hot and cold but measuring when the ticking is presenting should tell the tale. I have heard of some using weed whacker line to measure gear lash but have never tried that myself. Measurement should be done on dry gears because assembly lube or oil can take up the .001 lash and it would not be felt when rotating the cam gear back and forth. Worst case for the OP is that lash is fine and back to square one. I think worth the time to check.

 

The OP has springs that will accommodate .650" lift but actual cam lift is .550".