Originally Posted by Naeos_Valkarian

So it should be impossible(under any sane circumstances) to move the camshaft any noticeable degree forward or backwards unless the hardware holding it in position was removed or there is some major wear going on which would cause an awesome amount of damage and racket when running the engine. What OP is meaning by "sprung out" is that the camshaft rotated under spring pressure by itself due to the belt not holding it where it needed to be. I swear all it takes is a soft breath to have the camshaft rotate on it's own when both are placed on their timing marks, especially the passenger side bank from my experience. ( I have timed the 6G72 around 7x by now).

There is not enough spring pressure to damage the valves from this happening, however it's more believable that a hose clamp is sitting on top of a valve in the intake(if you removed the intake manifold) or that a simple change in oil brand and filter caused the noticeable ticking to occur. I suppose that if the valvetrain was sitting drained of oil for long enough, air would most definitely have found it's way into a singular lifter. In any case, I would change the oil if you haven't already and make sure to run the recommended 5W-30 along with a good oil filter, I have tried multiple brands of filters and believe it or not, each one has resulted in varying degrees of lifter noise over the years.(likely due to filter quality/oil flow characteristics) It also helps to prime the new oil filter with oil before installing to avoid the lifters being depressed with no oil to replace it.(resulting in air possibly being sucked in to the empty lifters)

I absolutely have to ask and I'm not trying to be presumptuous but from what I've seen, the biggest point of failure for Monteros that have had the timing belt done, is people not setting the hydraulic belt tensioners angle correctly or even not replacing it and it wearing out. I have this picture below to indicate the proper orientation of the tensioner. Now that I'm typing this out, it occurs to me that an incorrectly set tensioner or failing tensioner can in fact cause a tapping noise when the engine is running, this actually happened to me twice when the tensioner went out. (I had gotten two duds back to back, ooof) If this is not the issue and you set it correctly, please disregard, I'm only here to help.

Originally Posted by 1960StudebakerHawk

Very interesting. So we are now considering air in a lifter or possibly the tensioner. Good to hear that the cam shaft did not pop out "forward".

I am betting that the ticking noise will go away after running it some and as the lifter or lifters get pumped back up with oil.
MontyPython....has the ticking noise gone away yet? If not, can you use a long bar/tool to figure out where the noise is coming from?

Originally Posted by Montelander

Studebakerhawk,

I wouldn't consider air in the lifters unless the lifters are old and the seals are worn out. Any working lifter with good seals will completely fill with oil in the first minute of idling. They are fed pressurized oil through the rocker arm assembly.
Prefilling them is just to help with initial start up after installation of new or empty lifters.
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I would imagine what ever ticking he has now is what he has got. If he wants to quiet it up oil additives are the easiest.

Good news though is that new or remaned lifter though are like 40 bux for all of them.


Also Monty I wouldn't worry about a tensioner issue. Usually failing hydraulic tensions cause belt slap that sounds like rod knock.

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