A noisey cam follower after a head rebuild...Should I be concerned ?...every thing else is fine...If so, can I remove the followers without removing the engine....maybe a strong magnet....or what ever... and/or is there another solution? or an additive? ....Regards Bonehunter...

 

A "follower" means a finger follower, like you find on overhead cam engines. What you're referring to is properly called a "lifter" or a "tappet" - to be totally pedantic, the AMC242 uses "flat hydraulic tappets" (meaning no roller foot, and the tappet has a hydraulic mechanism that takes up valvetrain lash and pumps oil to the top of the cylinder head via the pushrod. "Flat" isn't truly flat - the foot actually is crowned to a circle of about six feet in diamter.)

You don't have to remove the engine to remove the tappets, but you will need to remove the head. Therefore, it's not a job to be taken lightly, and you should make sure you need to do so.

1) Get a mechanic's stethoscope if you don't already have one (why not? Get to Sears and pick one up! Should be about ten bucks...) and localise the noise. Use the probe to listen at various points with the engine running. The tappet gallery, as you probably know, runs down the passenger side of the engine. A tappet noise will present more loudly below the parting line between the cylinder head and engine block - if it's louder above that line, pull the valve cover and tighten the rockers. 19 pound-feet with the valve closed...

2) Typically, a tappet starts knocking because it "goes flat." This means that either it can't retain hydraulic pressure (therefore wanting replacement) or because the piston has gotten gunked up and won't move. Try a good engine flush to de-crud things - I've got a couple of ways to do this:
- Replace one quart of engine oil with one quart of Marvel Mystery Oil. Run as normal.
- Replace one quart of engine oil with one quart of Berryman B-12 Chemtool. Do not exceed two hundred miles of operation before draining! (You may also add a half-quart and idle in place for 15-30 minutes.)
- Replace two quarts of engine oil with two quarts of Type F (if you can find it) or Dexron/Mercon (if you can't) automatic transmission fluid. This will decrease the viscosity of your oil and the detergents are mildly antagonistic to your seals, so I wouldn't go past 500 miles on that change.
- Replace one quart of engine oil with one quart of Diesel fuel, idle for ten minutes. (This is the last option, if you can't find anything else. Kerosene should also work - it's closely related to Diesel. In either case, you're only replacing 17% of your engine oil...)

In all cases above, drain while hot. This will carry more crud out of the engine.

After flushing and draining, refill with the proper oil and monitor. If it doesn't clear up in a week, drain and refill with slightly thicker oil (for instance, go from a 10W-40 to a 20W-50) and see if that quiets it down. If it does, it's a collapsed lifter and you'll be pulling the head off to change them. If it doesn't, go with the stethoscope again and see if the noise has travelled - it could always be a rod knock, piston slap, or a bearing knock if you've cured the lifters (and the lifter knock was hiding something else.) Thicker oil will also quiet a bearing knock - so it's useful to make sure you have localilsed the noise before you started all of this.