Magnum Head Rocker Arms

Hey Bobscuda,

I'm not sure if this is relevant to your post but I also ran into valve train ticking noise on my Magnum Stroker.

Fully balanced and blueprinted motor , Edlebrock Aluminum heads, Scorpion Racing 1.6 rocker assy, high pressure oil pump, custom length pushrods, Mopar Performance lifters.

I broke in the engine on Brad Penn oil (Yeah. I know I didn't need to) and no perceptible valve train noise until I drained the oil after approx. 1000 miles and installed a 5w30 synthetic oil.
Valvetrain became as noisy as hell after about 10 miles, so bad, I thought it was rod knock.

Changed out what I thought was a bad lifter (Used a stethoscope to isolate it). Put it all back together , now a different lifter in the other cylinder head doing the same thing!

Out of desperation, and from suggestions from an engine builder, I changed the oil to non synthetic Castrol 5w 30.

Voila! Noise gone but I could not find an explanation for this.

Until a Mobil Oil rep came into our Garage and informed me that the oil I used was specific to Mercedes Benz engines only ( BTW, it says so right on the bottle).

I then switched back to Royal Purple synthetic and no issues since.

Bottom line for me was I need to start reading product labels and stop assuming ****.

I learned this the hard way and it cost me 3 oil and filter changes plus the lifter and the head, intake and valve cover gaskets. (couldn't get the lifter out of the galley without removing the cylinder head).

Hope the lesson I learned the hard expensive way helps someone else.

Cheers!