loud valvetrain squeak at cold start

[dethinboots]

I have no idea where its coming from. I had my cam installed not to long ago from a pretty reputable shop, but that's when the problems started. at first it was minute so I didn't worry. But now its loud and I swear cant be good. It only does this for the first 30 seconds then completely stops. I first thought it was a pulley or my water pump, but I lubed them all and replaced my water pump due to a leak and they are not the culprit. I put a stethoscope to the valve cover and it didn't sound like it was coming from there. its really freaking me out and I need some way to fix this to gain some peace of mind. any help would be appreciated.

[dethinboots]

removed valve cover and looked at the lifters and push rods and couldn't see any obvious problems like bent rods or metal shavings. I'm guessing the sound is coming from deeper inside my heads... if there are no tell tale sounds of imminent doom, should I worry? any course of action I should take?

[dethinboots]

resolved. broke a bolt installing my headers and the gas escaping passed the gasket was making the sound. thanks for the help everyone

[cammed goat]

Glad to hear you fixed your issue. Never heard of a squeak noise from the header gasket before, though. Usually a ticking noise.

[pajeff02]

Sorry -- missed this thread somehow. Yes, an exhaust leak can sound a whole lot like an issue in the valve train. Good find!

[dethinboots]

lol no problem. just glad it was somethin simple. I would like to know what I could use to seal the leak that wouldn't end up burning off.

[SMWS6TA]

you could try a new gasket. but if it still leaks then the surface needs to be ground flat like you do for heads. If stock manifolds it may be a good time to get headers.

[dethinboots]

I have about a month before I shove off for the 38th parallel, so this is something ill consider when I get back. I think the gasket is fine, just need to find a way to extract the broken bolt and properly secure my headers. while I'm at it... how much more beneficial would 1 and 7/8ths headers be over the current 1 and 3/4?

[pajeff02]

I went with 1-7/8" simply because I know that down the road I will be throwing at least a cam in the engine, if not heads and more.

[SMWS6TA]

Most likely you'll need to pull the head to get the remains unless you're very lucky and you have enough to put some vice grips on. Soak it with perpetrator like WD40.

Like Jeff said if you got bigger bolt on's the 1 7/8" are what you want.

[dethinboots]

I'm not going to even bother with them at this point. there isn't any of the bolt to grab onto, and pulling my heads would be excessive since I'm swapping them when I get home anyway. in yalls opinion, would upsizing be worth it? and what should I do with the old 243 heads coming off?

[SMWS6TA]

Do you mean better heads (up sizing )? Hell yeah.....paired with a good cam, will be a nice bump in hp/tq.

Regarding the 243 heads, get the remains of the bolt out and sell for $450ish for the pair. You'll get it too. You may need to have a machine shop do the extraction, so as to not FUBAR the head.

[dethinboots]

I meant up sizing the headers while improving the heads and cam. I don't want to spend another grand plus over negligible gains.

[SMWS6TA]

With your plans go ahead and get the 1 7/8"