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I have a 235 with less than 300 miles after being bored out and new valves/etc... I recently changed the oil. after about 50 miles on the new oil I added Rislone Hy-per Lube Zinc ZDDP Supplement. Now I have a tick in the engine. Any ideas on what is going on. Is it just a coincidence it start right after adding the Zinc.

What kind of lifters were used? Might be just as simple as a valve adjustment or a collapsed lifter is one of the new hydraulic lifters was used.

What oil did you use on break-in? What did you use when you changed it?
When you changed oil did you take a good look at the "old" oil to see if there were any metal particles or something strange in the oil?

How much of the ZDDP did you add and to what weight oil? Might not be a coincidence, Dave. A friend of mine a few years ago added one of those products (think it may have been made by Lucas but not positive) to 10-40 weight oil. He said it was about a pint and it thinned his oil enough that his lifters started clicking and ticking. Right then, too.

it was an 11 oz. bottle. 10w-30 oil. No hydraulic lifters. The old oil looked good when I pulled it out. I should give a little more history. When I started on the engine it had not been started for over 20 years. I pulled the head off and inspected everything and at that point my mechanic friend immediately recognized it had been bored out slightly and it had new valves/etc... He said based on everything he saw it was all new with very few miles on it. We got it running. After about 100 miles I changed the oil. After another 50 I added the ZDDP. Maybe I should do another oil change just to be safe, and leave out the ZDDP. It was running fine without it.

I added that stuff to my engine about a month ago.

I had some ticking and a small chirping sound. I had adjusted the valves in the Spring and I thought I did a good job. I added the Rislone ZDDP stuff to see if that helped. Nope - it did not work - no change - no easy fix. So, the valve cover came off again. Using a 2.5 ft long piece of wooden dowelling as a stethoscope I was able to determine three valves needed adjusting. After adjusting the valves, it still had the chirp, so while the valve cover was off I squirted some oil on the rockers and it quieted down. The chirp hasn't returned even after the truck got a pretty good work Saturday night.

So, I suggest you check your valve adjustment.

Not good, I didn't remember doing it but I was going through my auto parts purchase history and I bought two bottles of the additive (at different times). I am guessing I added a bottle when I did the oil change a forgot. I then added the second bottle last week. I am only admitting to being an idiot to maybe save someone else. I think I need to do another oil change very soon.

Like today.

OK. So one bottle is fine. Two is too much.

One more thing I'll add, Dave. Back around Christmas I developed a very odd (and alarming) high pitched chirping sound that actually mimicked a cricket sitting on top of a microphone turned up in volume. I looked and looked and couldn't figure it out and then more or less in frustration I set my hand on my air cleaner (which isn't a typical 235 air cleaner but what you see below (which came from a slant 6 with a 1bbl). The chirp stopped as long as my hand was there. So I tightened the thumbscrew about 1/2 turn and that fixed it. You never know. Evidently the top piece was rubbing on the center screw threads or something.

I have concluded that 235s make lots of noises that will drive you batty and probably don't amount to much. Tiny exhaust leaks that reverberate off sheet metal. Intermittent valvetrain noise that comes and goes without a discernable pattern or easy explanation. Squeaks and squeals and even a chirp sometimes.

This may not be the "right" approach, but I have decided to mostly ignore them if I know my valves are adjusted, my dwell is set, the top end is oiling, oil pressure is good, etc.

Adjust the valves to specs for your engine again. I have about that amount miles on a overhauled 261. It had a tick from first start up and I had the zink additive. Changed oil didn't add zink and it still ticked. I adjusted the valve 3 times before it stopped ticking.

I should've added that when you adjust them use Jerry's companion cylinder technique.

Mechanical valves can and do go out of adjustment once in a while so first things first, adjust the valves. Once adjusted and running, make sure each and every rocker arm is getting a dribble of oil out of the dribble hole on each rocker, especially the end rockers. If they are not, you will need to solve that issue. A lack of oil lubrication will cause the rockers to tap.

I fought the ticking on my 62 - 235 for years, two new sets of hyd. lifters, replaced the rocker assembly and new push rods. If you have hyd. lifters and they have a small oil passage in the top center, grind a small groove in the bottom of the push rods to allow the oil to pass through the lifters. What a difference!! My truck hasn't been this quiet since I had the engine rebuilt 15 years ago. You guys on this site told me this for years but I was resistant to do it. Jerry told me again recently when I was having major issues and it worked great! GM had that groove in the push rods in certain years of the 235.

There is a tutorial on this process, written by one our our fellow ‘bolters “Pre 68 Dave”. Here is a link to that article. http://chev235guy.blogspot.com/search/label/Hydraulic%20Lifter%20Noise