Comp Cams XE264HR-14 Cam install in my 5.0 swapped 01 Ranger

Well guys been super busy and had parts to do this sitting around for awhile. Fortunately enough my timing cover gasket went from no leak to straight peeing in a 2 mile drive recently. Here is a few notes and parts I used, I'll add part numbers and update original post wen done...

-Comp Cams 35‑349‑8 Xtreme Energy Cam
-Alex's parts gt40p springs
-Alex's parts 6.305 extended pushrods (figured this out after cam was installed and stockers are WAY too short)

I already had a few supporting mods along with 1.6 roller rockers and roller timing chain setup on the truck when it was built. Put about 15k hard miles on her in 2 years and she sure needed a little cleaning.

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• boominXplorer
• September 14, 2016

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• boominXplorer
• September 14, 2016

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• boominXplorer
• September 14, 2016

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• boominXplorer
• September 14, 2016

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• boominXplorer
• September 14, 2016

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• boominXplorer
• September 14, 2016

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• boominXplorer
• September 14, 2016

 

[jd4242]

I have a pushrod checker, gauges of all sorts and every pushrod and shim available to my disposal lol.

These rockers are 1.6 and so are stock.

Thought so.lol

Gotcha. Some reason i keep thinking you had 1.8 or something. .or you do have a set but the valve covers didnt work or something. .lol i cant remember. .

I do wanna swing by and hear this thing..already sounded NICE..

Those that haven't seen this truck in person,its everything it appears to be.pictures dont do it justice. Everything is top notch and done the RIGHT way!!

 

[shucker1]

Stupid question if I may?

How are you setting up to check preload?

Can you post a picture?

 

[CDW6212R]

Good job to keep at it. Most people live with the sound or make one attempt to verify parts or make one change, and then live with it. Most people know that roller rockers do make a little noise themselves, so it's hard to tell the difference etc.

It sounds like the slightly longer pushrods and the shims work better than the original on paper length. That's also great work, there's a range of measurements there which can be "acceptable" by specs, and still function. The sound is harder to work out, actual testing is the best way to solve that.

 

[boominXplorer]

Stupid question if I may?

How are you setting up to check preload?

Can you post a picture?

I tried various ways but my base measurements started with a straight edge (Ford duratec cam timing tool) and marking on the pushrods. I then compared it with how much past zero lash until it was torqued. 1/2 turn is about .025, 3/4 turn is .040 and 1 turn is .060. Then I just used those for further reference.

Oh and the roller rockers were hitting the oil baffle rivets in the valve cover before I ground them down. Even though they would fit with my 1" spacer, I hate the look of tall valve covers (not sure why)

 

[boominXplorer]

Forgot to mention this one. In taking the intake off 10 times I cracked the front ear. (First pic, thats my old silver intake)Come to find out the 99-01 intakes are very weak in the front and back bolt holes (discussion for a whole new thread). Luckily I had a spare 97 powder coated sparkle black intake I have had since 2004. It was ported but I added a little more to what I did back then.

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• boominXplorer
• September 25, 2016

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• boominXplorer
• September 25, 2016

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• boominXplorer
• September 25, 2016

 

[boominXplorer]

Took these after the 6.320 pushrods were installed and truck warmed up. Also used my phone to take them.

 

[boominXplorer]

This tapping is driving me crazy lol. Fired it up after sitting overnight and was as quiet as could be. Drove it and after about 10 miles my tick comes back. Definitely only 1 or maybe 2 making noise and it comes and goes at low RPM crusing and I only notice it when I'm riding along a wall/fence/row of cars. I am running 10w30 oil also with zinc additive. At idle warm it slowly ticks more and more.

After reading a few bad reviews on the quality control of the for racing lifters I'm thinking I missed something on first install. They all pumped up but I am sure I didn't inspect them as good as I probably should of. I have always had an intermittent tick but now with the cam I really notice it and it has the same "tapping pattern".

Also this motor is all stock with just fresh top end. It does have 180k on it. I noticed the lifters I'm running have a size of .874 but comp cams lifters and some other performance lifters come .875. I'm thinking I either have a touch of pressure bleed off or just a bad lifter. I did watch everything on the passenger side while it was running with the cover off and oil flow looks even across all.

I even tried every pushrod setup with different preload settings and I still have the tick. Pretty sure the 6.320s are the exact pushrods I need and the extra preload I put on with the larger ones just help quiet the crappie lifter.

 

[shucker1]

This tapping is driving me crazy lol. Fired it up after sitting overnight and was as quiet as could be. Drove it and after about 10 miles my tick comes back. Definitely only 1 or maybe 2 making noise and it comes and goes at low RPM crusing and I only notice it when I'm riding along a wall/fence/row of cars. I am running 10w30 oil also with zinc additive. At idle warm it slowly ticks more and more.

Also this motor is all stock with just fresh top end. It does have 180k on it. I noticed the lifters I'm running have a size of .874 but comp cams lifters and some other performance lifters come .875. I'm thinking I either have a touch of pressure bleed off or just a bad lifter. I did watch everything on the passenger side while it was running with the cover off and oil flow looks even across all.

OK, Read your first paragraph. A) "Fired it up and quiet as could be" B) "At idle warm it slowly ticks more and more" C) "I am running 10W30 oil"

Second paragraph

A) "Also this motor is all stock with just a fresh top end. It does have 180 K on it"

Any way you could rig up an analog pressure gauge and see if the tick starts as you drop oil pressure while it warms up and thins out?

Could it be as simple as a low oil pressure problem?

 

[boominXplorer]

I am pretty sure it's not an oil pressure issue as I'm getting equal flow out the rockers and I haven't seen the oil pressure gauge bounce at all (I know it's only a 5psi switch). I have a gauge I can hook up to the sensor port but if I have a worn lifter bore I don't think I'll see much of a pressure difference than normal. I did replace the oil pump before I put the engine in so it only has 15k mi.

Like I said earlier in my thread I always had a little tap before and wrote it off as an exhaust leak because it was barely noticable. This cam install definitely amplified it. I do have a little suspect area in the collector but I changed the gasket and there wasn't a single area of blow through there.

I also had tried different weight oils from 5w30 to 10w40 before in my oil changes and never really noticed a difference in noise. I started the cam with 10w40 and have gone down to 10w30 thinking the thinner oil might help get in there.

The only thing I have going for me is I'm sure it's coming from the intake lifters on cyl 1 & 3. When I was running it with the valve cover off they were the 2 that always had the most noise no matter what pushrods I put in. All had some noise but they seemed louder.

 

[Centaurus5.0]

Oil Galley Plug?

 

[boominXplorer]

Had a guy look at it look at it that has been racing SBF motors for over 20 years. His first words were "did you take apart the lifters?". I explained no they were pretty new and he said out of every set he has ever bought brand new out the box he always finds 1 or 2 he doesn't like. He will take apart a new set if there is any question pumping in them up. This has got to be my issue as I have tried 3 different pushrods that put various preload on the lifter and there is almost no change in the sound except when they have a ton of preload they seem to quiet down. I also never inspected the new lifters as good as I should when they went in, just a quick pump up and in they went.

He also said with the added spring pressure and extra lift from the cam my roller rockers are working 2x as hard as they were before. Some valvetrain noise is normal with my setup but there should be no distinct tapping at any time.

 

[boominXplorer]

Put 20w50 in it for craps and giggles and absolutely no change in sound. It's funny though, sometimes at startup it's quiet sometimes it has it's normal sounds.

Got a bit of work this week already so it's going to be a bit till I get in there and mess with the lifters. I'm going to order a new set and check them all over and prime them before I even tear the truck down.

 

[shucker1]

If you had a Small Hole Gauge Set like a Starrett Model S831EZ you could check your lifter bores for roundness and size while you are in there.

 

[Dono]

Have you gone any further with this?
I'd think .512 lift with an aggressive ramp rate would be noisy. The clip you posted sounds about right to me. Its hard to tell from clips though.

I know my .58x lift cam makes my valve train noisy. I'm not using pedestal rockers, but my witness marks on the top of the valves look really good, and I know I have just over 1/2 turn of pre-load on all lifters and have new morel linkbar lifters.

How's the noise at idle when the motor is good and warm? Mine quiets down quite a bit.

In my limited experience, I'm not sure that you will be able to quiet your valve train down. I'm interested to find out if you do find something that works, thats for sure.

 

[boominXplorer]

Put probably 200 miles on it with no issues. Still have my extra "noise" but it has not changed at all. Seems to be quiet most of the time at startup and intermittently I'll get my tap tap tap on engine deceleration. Honestly if I didn't have an ass ton of exposed wheel well I probably wouldn't hear it at all.

I'm still going to try another set lifters that are the .001 larger size but it will be a few weeks till I have time to mess with it again. I'm going to look into the lifter bore diameters and tear apart the lifters from cyl 2 and 3 (seems to be the loudest area at times) before I reassemble.

 

[boominXplorer]

Little update: 500 miles in and no issues, same tapping noises lol. Will be installing a ported lower intake and new lifters when time avails. Then its time for some custom tunes with possibly one for a 100 shot. Going to build a custom pinion traction bar over the winter and see how she does in the spring at the track.

 

[99SportX]

Interesting thread. I believe that is the same cam I am running. I never did anything fancy with pushrods when I did mine. Just checked that there was at least some preload with the stockers. I used the comp springs they recommended over the phone along with some 1.6 rr's. I do have a light tick though. It never really concerned me, but I am not an engine expert by any means. She has run for years with it though. I always felt that my motor lacks high end pull but I have no dyno data to prove that, just seat of the pants feel.

 

[boominXplorer]

I noticed a big difference in pull from 3500-5000 for sure from stock cam. My truck was my daily up until the swap and it was only down for about a week. With the little down time I was really able to notice the difference in the power. I also adjusted my shift points higher with my sct tuner.

My tap sounds like a small exhaust leak and is intermittent. One day I'll get some new lifters put in and see what I got. I'm an easy 1500 miles in now and it might have quieted down a little over time.

 

[gmanpaint]

I noticed a big difference in pull from 3500-5000 for sure from stock cam.

I also adjusted my shift points higher with my sct tuner.

Just found this thread searching out this cam install by others. Been a few years I see since the last update. Hoping your still running this same cam today. I has questions, if you have it in you to answer sir!

Your high end RPM difference, is mentioned as quoted above, but I'm curious about any change between 2000-3500 RPM range, with this cam. (Towing at Hwy speeds requires more power in this range)

I have the SCT 1350 tuner as well, but haven't used/messed with it yet for the 98 5.0L, that is still set to stock tune. How much of the tuning can be used with this tuner? Will one of the preloaded tunes work after this cam & header swap is done to get it home from a mechanic shop safely?

Also, the pushrod measure issue you mention here. Did you ever sort it out? Was it the lifters? Think a set of 6.30" will work just fine after all is said and done? (Will still measure with the pushrod tool)

Thanks Boomin!

 

[CDW6212R]

The stock Explorer PCM can handle any easy drive without a special tune, for all basic parts swaps. A cam is no big deal given the otherwise stock or mild heads/intake etc. If you mean to have the cam swapped, and drive it home, skip the computer tune until you do have it home. You'd have to have a radical cam to be a problem for the stock program.