Angry lifters after hard thrashing

[Rusty knuckles]

Looking for a little guidance here and see if I'm missing something.

Ran the autocross today in my 69 charger with a basically stock 383. After a couple hard runs as I'm pulling back into the pit I hear distinct lifter rattle. I can get it to go away by essentially letting the engine cool off. It did this in the last autocross too. I tend to have about 15-20psi oil pressure at idle when warm and my thought was that wasn't enough when I go from idle to Hammering the **** out of it. So while I'm staged I've tried revving the engine to about 2000 to get my oil pressure up a bit into the high 30s or low 40s. This sometimes helps, sometimes not. Cooling off the engine always helps, like between heats. And oil pressure is good otherwise. Ran about 45-50psi cruising home at 3k.

I don't think I've hurt the engine as the tick goes away and I've made several runs coming in to hear clack clack clack. My oil level is good and I'm running 10w-30. I'm thinking I need heavier weight oil. Am I missing something? Would a bigger oil pan be necessary?

 

[Fran Blacker]

Oil pickup becoming uncovered and stuck air? Oil pan to small not baffled?

 

[Rusty knuckles]

Hard to say. I'm too busy during the run to really watch. But if sucking air was the issue I'd think it would do it when cooler too

 

[yella71]

Oil pickup becoming uncovered and stuck air? Oil pan to small not baffled?

I was thinking the same thing lifters filled with air

 

[493 Mike]

I think you should look into a road race style oil pan setup.
Mike

 

[wagonman]

Auto crossing with a stock pan and juice lifters? Sounds like an upgrade is needed. Minimum a Good not cheap 6qt Hemi pan. Or one the Milodon road race pans. Check the bearings with pan off. Comp lifters? We used to use a big Idiot lite for oil and temp for dirt circle racing as our driver was busy not getting wrecked. Did that after he got so hot it melted the solder out of the temp sender. That is HOT

 

[Rusty knuckles]

Auto crossing with a stock pan and juice lifters? Sounds like an upgrade is needed. Minimum a Good not cheap 6qt Hemi pan. Or one the Milodon road race pans. Check the bearings with pan off. Comp lifters? We used to use a big Idiot lite for oil and temp for dirt circle racing as our driver was busy not getting wrecked. Did that after he got so hot it melted the solder out of the temp sender. That is HOT

This may be the direction I need to go. Lifters are probably not comp but factory I'm pretty sure. It's a warranty block I've never been in to and it appears to be very oem

 

[wagonman]

OEM lifters are better than the junk out now. Get the oil issue sorted first. 10-40 Rotella wont hurt either. Hope it don't have the nylon cam gear. Just something to look at. More $$ but better safe than sorry.

 

[DeltaV]

Nylon cam gears!


All people responsible should be drawn and quartered.

 

[GTX JOHN]

X2 The new lifters are Chinese Junk.
Comps are some of the worst!
Try to find the old Johnson made in US
lifters. I believe in the last years they too are
Chinese Junk as well.

 

[wagonman]

Got a set from an old but new 509 cam I sold but kept the lifters. My Precious.

 

[Geoff 2]

I can get 10w/60 oil here & also 5W/50. That is what I would use. Your oil is thinning out with the heat from the hard running.
Basically stock. Does it have a 'cam'? That usually requires more spring tension, which bleeds the lifters down quicker. As do high ratio rockers.

 

[Rusty knuckles]

I can get 10w/60 oil here & also 5W/50. That is what I would use. Your oil is thinning out with the heat from the hard running.
Basically stock. Does it have a 'cam'? That usually requires more spring tension, which bleeds the lifters down quicker. As do high ratio rockers.

Basically stock is electronic ignition, headers, dp4b intake, and eddy 750 as the performance mods. All of which ive changed from stock items and consider pretty basic and mild upgrades. I believe the cam is a factory HP cam. The engine is a warranty engine and is orange. Has some turquoise items on it from the original engine so I don't believe it's really been into.

 

[Mick56]

How hot is your motor running during the autocross? If you can keep the motor cooler, it would help keep the oil thicker.

 

[Rusty knuckles]

How hot is your motor running during the autocross? If you can keep the motor cooler, it would help keep the oil thicker.

It tends to heat up while staging from heat soak. I shut it off and actually push the car through staging after each run. Then I'll start it when I'm just a few cars back. The temp guage pegs out for a minute after starting but once circulating for a minute comes back into the 200-215 area. At the end of the run it's generally 200 or so.

 

[padam]

It tends to heat up while staging from heat soak. I shut it off and actually push the car through staging after each run. Then I'll start it when I'm just a few cars back. The temp guage pegs out for a minute after starting but once circulating for a minute comes back into the 200-215 area. At the end of the run it's generally 200 or so.

Yikes!

 

[Rusty knuckles]

I didn't think that was too bad. Right in the middle of the normal range on the guage.

 

[MarPar]

Do you have a windage tray?

 

[Geoff 2]

The oil cooler is a good idea for ANY engine that sees a load for sustained time periods.

 

[Rusty knuckles]

Do you have a windage tray?

Pretty sure yes.