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**fullyflaredd** · 02-14-2021, 10:25 PM

Track day was awesome, however it was cut quite short as the car has a couple of issues that need sorting. First and foremost, the brakes are garbage. I somewhat anticipated this as I didn't have the time to swap out to race pads prior to the track day, but did not expect them to be so bad. Had zero confidence going late into corners.

Also the car has developed a pretty nasty ticking noise. It sounds valvetrain related and I'll be pulling the valve cover off this week hopefully to dive deeper into it and resolve it.

As for the brakes, I am between either the 996 kit, or the AP racing cp8350 kit from Essex. I'm leaning towards the AP kit simply because of the lack of rotor options aside from the drilled OEM rotors for the 996 kit. Essex also has a rear caliper kit that mates to the stock rear rotors, so if I were to decide to also do the rears, I could go that route in the future. The AP Racing kit is also significantly lighter than the 996 kit, and 14lbs lighter than stock, which is another factor that makes me lean towards it as I'd like to get this car as close to 3k lbs as possible. I have not had it corner balanced yet, but with its current mods I'd guess it's pretty close to 3200lbs. The next major weight savings are going to come from either a carbon roof or sunroof delete, and deleting the rear seats. Current weight savings are from the recaros, lithium battery, supersprint headers / section 1 and 2, and the wheels.

**fullyflaredd** · 02-17-2021, 02:35 AM

So I had the car dropped off at a shop expecting to just need a valve adjustment, but the shop says the exhaust cam is worn and it catches when they run their fingernail through. I'm curious if this could actually be the cause of the ticking/tapping noise or if the shop is mistaken and it could be something else. Do worn cams make a ticking/tapping noise?

The car has 280/272 cams, and the followers were not changed when they were installed, but they have 50k miles on them with those rockers so I'm not sure why the issue would present itself now. The shop also recommends pulling the head to go through to, but once again I'm a bit skeptical of having to do all of that as it has a Lang Racing stage 1 head with new valve guides and seals and so I don't think there is an issue with it.

I'm curious as to what you guys might think. Unfortunately I did not have the foresight to take a video of the sound which would have probably been very helpful.

**fullyflaredd** · 03-21-2021, 03:10 AM

I believe I found the culprit. I'm debating whether to replace a single follower and see if it resolves the noise, or whether I just bite the bullet and replace all 24. The rest seem to be in good shape. I may also have the exhaust camshaft measured by a shop to see if they recommend replacing it. For what it's worth, almost all the clearances were too tight, with the exception of the lobe pictured below which was too loose. I assume it was too loose because the rocker became flattened. I am somewhat irked that the shop where I dropped it off to diagnose and do the valve adjustment (reputable place mind you) had almost all the clearances too tight. I'm curious if perhaps they did the adjustment based on stock cams, even though I clearly mention to them I had Schrick cams. Regardless, that's not the root cause of the issue and the noise started happening prior to that, but I'll definitely make sure to let the shop know. I've never done anything as intricate on a car, so replacing the rockers will definitely be a fun learning experience for me. I've seen most vids and DIY articles on it, but any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Also since the car is just sitting for the time being, figured I'm going to order some detail supplies and do some paint correction. Pics incoming soon.

**fullyflaredd** · 05-03-2021, 10:21 PM

So decided to pull the cams and replace the rockers. Noticed two were flattened and worn pretty badly and I'm 99.9% sure that is the cause of the noise.

However after removing the camshaft on the exhaust side, I pulled a bonehead move and dropped a shim down the only oil galley that didn't have a screen on it. Any ideas on how to fish it out minus resorting to pulling the pan? Going to try with a telescoping and flexible magnet, but I don't have high hopes 😢

This is the passage I dropped the shim through:

**heinzboehmer** · 05-03-2021, 10:50 PM

That sucks to hear. Long flexible magnet is the only way I can think of retrieving it without pulling the pan. This thread might give you some hope/ideas: https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/m...down-head-help

**fullyflaredd** · 05-03-2021, 11:37 PM

Thanks for that thread! Definitely gives me some hope as I believe I dropped it down the same passage. However that piece is relatively long compared to a shim so maybe he had more luck due to that. Will update this thread on Wednesday once the flexible magnet arrives.

**fullyflaredd** · 05-05-2021, 01:16 PM

Initially thought I got the magnet stuck as I was unable to yank it out. But kept wiggling it around and got it out, and was quite stoked to see this on the end of the magnet:

**heinzboehmer** · 05-05-2021, 01:27 PM

Nice! I can only imagine the amount of relief you felt when you pulled out the shim.

**Tbonem3** · 05-05-2021, 02:56 PM

feelsgoodman

**fullyflaredd** · 05-18-2021, 02:49 AM

So reassembly was going smoothly until I stripped the thread where the set screw holds the rocker arm shaft in place. Ok no problem I thought, let me use a time sert and resolve this. I drilled the hole and tapped it, but being in a rush and not taking my sweet time, seems like some metal shavings were still not loosened all the way and when I put in the time sert, the shavings remained. I didn't realize this and when I put the set screw back in, the time sert broke and I'm back to square one. The hole is now a mangled mess with a broken time sert stuck in the bottom half of it. To make matters worse, I believe some metal shavings got stuck between the rocker arm shaft and head itself, making it impossible to get the rocker arm shaft out again. I tried using channel locks to rotate it back and forth, as well as using a mallet with something pried up against it as leverage to try and push it out, and no luck. I also mangled the shaft pretty bad as I was starting grabbing it with the channel locks with no regard for it's well being trying to try it free with no luck. The shaft will move a bit if I hit it with a mallet and rotate somewhat freely, however it only moves less than an inch or so before it is completely jammed and won't even rotate.

I'm at a loss of what to do. I would really prefer not to remove the head, but it looks more and more like I might have to resort to that. Then potentially have the hole welded and tapped. As for the rocker arm shaft, what are my options? It does not want to move. It's getting held up by something. I used a boroscope to try and see what it could be, but I can't even pinpoint that. I'm wondering if it's potentially damaged from using the channel lock on it and due to the right clearances it's jammed. Pretty damn frustrated as everything was going smoothly and then me being an idiot and stripping the thread just undid all the progress I had going.

**fullyflaredd** · 05-18-2021, 08:45 PM

Well got the rocker arm shaft out but that thread is still.mangled. Got the half of the time sert out as well, but decided to remove the head and do it properly. This is turning into a nice little project that was not quite anticipated.

**fullyflaredd** · 06-18-2021, 02:13 PM

Dropped the head off at Lang and had them send it off to the machine shop for repairs and cleaning. Got the head back all nice and clean. Also decided to pick up all new rocker arms. Was originally going to replace only the ones that were flattened / damaged, but I don't want to have to open it up again. FWIW, Lang haa the Schrick DLC ones for $1625 for all 24, which is significantly cheaper than anywhere else I've found. Also yes I know, I really need a garage. Having stuff laying around my room the past few weeks has been triggering my OCD and giving me anxiety.

**fullyflaredd** · 07-03-2021, 10:39 AM

All back together and running smoothly. However the oil temp keeps floating around 220-230 when pushed a little, which has me worried. I had not yet put the radiator air duct back on when doing the quick test runs, but I'm not sure that would make any difference given how short my test runs were. I will probably bleed the system again and also replace the level/temp sensor as it does seem to be erratic at times.

**fullyflaredd** · 07-16-2021, 01:37 AM

So car started ticking again. It's still relatively quiet right now, but it was the same noise before it got worse. Going to drive it around until it gets noticeably worse, and then apart it will have to go again.

I'm glad I didn't change all 24 rockers as I had planned and only the 3 that were damaged, as now I plan on replacing the cams as well and fortunately did not pair a brand new set of rockers with old cams. The exhaust cam has some wear on it, and my guess is this is the root cause. Will have to inspect everything again once it's apart.

Let this be a lesson, if you're changing camshafts, change the followers. Yes they're expensive, but it'll save you a hassle in the long run. I wish the PO of my car had changed them, as now I'll be needing new cams (at minimum an exhaust cam) in addition to the rockers I purchased. $$$

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