Do you think it will have done much damage

[RobbAdams]

I have had a bit of ticking since I put in my new motor, I had chalked most of the noise up to bad headder gaskets and replaced them. the lack of exhaust leaks have made another ticking become more apparent. it is coming from only one side of the engine, and sounds to be valve/rocker related.

In doing some research, I may have not been as careful as required when dissasembling the rocker aseembly, so I could do my cam swap, and may have inadvertantly put the rocker shaft retainers/bolts in the incorrect spacing, not realizing that they were different thicknesses. Is it likely to just cause sloppy rockers/noise or perhaps cam damage!!!!

This is a flatt tappet Hydralic type set up with Stock Stamped Rockers. When the cam was replaced, I installed New lifters, but retained the stock stamped rockers, stock pushrods, and stock springs (36,000 mile motor). I am planning to put in new springs after the first 5-700 miles when the cam is really broken in. The cam the the comp xe262H, which was reccomended by many on here.

 

[Airfix]

Is it tick or a bit deeper, had a scare after putting my engine together, had a knock which increased with speed, not a deep enough noise to be rod bearing but similar.
Ended up pulling the pan and the windage tray had shifted sideways when I. bolted it up (sloppy holes) . As the crank rotated it just caught the edge of the tray leading to the noise, repositioned and some minor bending and problem solved, try a rubber hose against the valve covers, heads and oil pan stick it to your ear and try and find it that way.

 

[RobbAdams]

No windage tray here!

 

[grumpuscreature]

IMO you haven't put enough miles on it to do major damage. Wouldn't worry about it. If the noise wasn't any louder than a header leak you probably had a loose rocker or two and not much else. If you were doing real damage you would have had some real noise.

 

[moper]

You may be hearing teh pushrods rubbing on the heads, and it will put some odd forces on the rockers as they wander around, but as long as you fix it and stop running it that way, I think you'll be fine.