The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 216 Engine Noise

I finally conquered the rattling sound that has plagued my 1938 216 for over three years. I have had a fairly loud rattle that comes alive at say 30 mph and above. It used to quiet down some when the engine got warm in the summer. Two years ago I overhauled the motor because of a scored cylinder that existed from the time I purchased it in 2015. I bored it, installed new pistons and rods. I thought by the look of one of the rods that it may have had a little twist to it. When all was assembled, the rattle was still there. Last year I installed all nos rockers and examined all the lifters. The noise persisted. This spring I went to do another valve adjustment and discovered that #5 intake had over .020 clearance. I adjusted it and the rattle almost disappeared. So I examined the pushrod itself. The top socket that the rocker ball fits into had worn down and receded, to the extent that the rod was actually captive on the rocker ball! In addition it was worn so deeply that the range of motion was limited. I replaced the pushrod along with several others and the noise is finally gone!

That's a pretty common problem, and one that's not obvious to an external inspection. Quite often, the problem is actually a worn pivot ball on the adjusting screw, resulting in a tip that protrudes down into the pushrod socket. The rocker arm adjusting screw must be backed off far enough to see the wear on the tip of the ball. In an extreme situation, the socket end of the pushrod can break due to insufficient pivoting of the ball in the pushrod cup. Fortunately, the thread on the rockers is common to other engines, (7/16-20) so adjusting screws from some Ford and/or Mopar engines will work in place of the very scarce (and expensive) stovebolt adjusting screws.
Jerry

Jerry, you explained that pretty well, as usual! I did replace some of the adjusters with NOS ones as some were quite worn. The worn ones formed a pattern that looked like a little eye . It almost looked like the center had worn down to a separate layer. I probably made the problem worse by introducing the newer ball end in a socket that was worn by a worn out ball.

Cleaning out the barn I found what I believe are original 216 push rods. I need help from the Stovebolt group on identification. I can send them to you no charge, shipping probably will be cheep with USPS. Doc

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