replaced Lifter...still ticks

I tore down the top end of my engine to replace my lifters because they ticked when cold and at speed, as far as i know did everything right. Soaked the new lifters in oil for a few days, put the push rods in the same place they came out of and torqued the rocker arms to 21ft-lbs.
I have ran the engine for 20 min and the lifters tick more than before. Did i do something wrong?
Thanks

 

How many miles on the engine? Your problem could be worn cam lobes allowing enough clearance for the lifters to tick. Could also be pushrods or rocker arms but I'd vote for the cam lobes. Also are you getting good oil circulation to the lifters?

 

what did the botome of the old lifters look like ?
that would tell the story
could also still have air in the new lifters

 

with the engine idling and valve cover removed
you could place a large screw driver on the push rod end of the rocker and collapse the lifter (push down hard) to try and bleed the air out of each lifter

 

It only has 66,000 miles. When i looked at the cam trough the lifter holes it looked good and so did the bottom of all the lifters i removed, no weird wear patterns. I did notice a a little wear on some of the rocker arm bridges maybe 1/16th of in inch. Just looking through the fill hole i can see oil squirting out of the first two rocker arms holes. Ill pull the valve cover tomorrow and check the rest.
The weird thing is the ticking noise is louder and all the time unlike before.

 

At 66k your cam shouldn't be worn that bad unless you had some other problems. Can you tell how many lifters are ticking? You may want to pull the valve cover, turn the engine by hand, and check the clearances on each lifter....although without it running and the lifters pumped up that may not tell you much.

 

BTW it has the aluminum rocker arm pivots, the ones that bridge both the intake and exhaust rocker arms.
thanks for your help so far.

 

I think it is one maybe two thats ticking. Ill pull the valve cover tomarrow and check it out.
The TSM says there should be no clearance in the valve train does that mean there should be no gap between the rocker arm and valve? do i check it with the engine running?
Also the 73 TSM doesn't give a torque for the rocker arm bridges so i just used the v8 spec which was 21ft-lbs it that correct?

 

There really shouldn't be any gap in the valve train (between lifters, pushrods, rockers and valve stem) but when the engine isn't running the lifter isn't "pumped up" with oil. When it isn't running there will still be the lifter spring pressure holding everything somewhat tight. If you only have one or two lifters ticking, which you probably do, you may have a worn rocker arm or pushrod. Not sure if you can get oversize pushrods for jeeps or not. I've worked on Harleys a lot and even though they have a non-adjustable valve train you can buy either oversize or adjustable pushrods for them. You may simply have a couple of worn pushrods and/or rocker arms. Buying a new rocker arm or two wouldn't cost much and would tell you if that's the problem. Push rods and rocker arms are fairly inexpensive items.
I'd identify the ticking lifters and then take a good look at the rockers and pushrods for wear. Turn the engine by hand until the cylinders with the ticking lifters are at top dead center and see how much play you have in the pushrods. You should be able to spin them with your fingers with a little effort but they shouldn't be sloppy or loose.
Also the torque on the rocker hold down bolt wouldn't affect clearance. It just makes sure that it stays put. 21 ft-lbs is probably fine although I think I torqued mine on the 360 to 35ft-lbs...just for good measure.

 

Here is a pic off on the the rocker bridges there seems to be significant wear.
sorry about the blurry pic i couldn't get the camera to focus on the foreground.

 

It is very possible that it is the bridge that is worn out and causing the tick. Problem is the darn things are expencive. To get your camera to focus on it better lay it on a plain white sheet of paper. Prop it up with a nut or something.

 

What about cutting a piece of shim plate to fit between the bottom of the bridge and the inside of the rocker arm?....as opposed to buying a new bridge? Lay the shim plate flat, drill a hole (you can clamp the shim between two peices of plywood and drill through the plywood and shim to keep it from balling up on the bit), then cut and roll to fit. Start with 0.0005" or 0.0010" shim plate, see if it works...if it doesn't go to thicker shim.
It can't take too much clearance out as the bottom of rocker, and top of the rocker mount (where the stud goes in) controls the clearance. If the shim is too thick the rocker will just be too tight and won't rock.

 

The rocker arm pivots are not expensive...

i just checked Advance web (partsamerica)

a few dollars each...

even a kit with rockerarms and pivots are less than 20 each.

a kit with two pivots and a bridge are less than 5 bux each.

find the cylinder, check out the parts u need.
good luck.

 

Got the problem fixed, pulled the valve cover and found three rocker arms that were lose. I ended up grinding a couple of thousandths of an inch off of the bridges that were worn. That brought it right back into spec, nice and quiet now. Now just to fix the exhaust leak....
Thanks for your help everyone