[Mr.Grandtastic]

2003 Honda rancher 350 FM. New jug, piston and rings, top end, cam/timing chain, exhaust gasket, tensioner, and cam bearing. Adjusted valves in cold engine to spec, .006. starts and runs great, just have the ticking noise that I'm pretty sure it's coming from the top, like the valves. Any ideas, thoughts, suggestions.

 

[SamUK]

What can chain did you use? Did you replace the cam gear also? Valves lapped in properly? Piston & rings are matched to the jug, yes?

Need a more detailed description to answer in detail.

Edit: All Hondas ‘tick’, maybe take a video to help us help you

 

[Mr.Grandtastic]

I bought an OEM Honda brand cam chain new. The top is brand new aftermarket also, the whole top end, springs, valves, wine nine yards! Jug, piston and rings came together new as well. I've never done the video thing before but I'll try in the morning!

 

[retro]

With all of those new parts breaking in at the same time, you'll probably have to perform several valve adjustments before the valvetrain settles down and stabilizes. Its normal and expected for valve lash to creep for a while during the breakin period. So readjust them after every few heating/cooling cycles until you're sure that everything has stabilized.

EDIT:
I have a 350 Rancher that does not tick at all. But I check those valve adjustments every time that I change the oil & filter.

 

[Mr.Grandtastic]

Here's the video. Motor was running probably 2 to 3 minutes before I took this video, ticking from the start though.

https://youtu.be/TkgTffPEGHo

 

[retro]

I can't hear anything in the video but I'm half deaf... did you check the top of the rod for excessive slop while it was apart? Was the motor sunk?

 

[Mr.Grandtastic]

New motor (jug up) never sunk. Didn't have a lot of play/slack really. Seemed normal

 

[retro]

There shouldn't be any up/down slop in the rod that you can see or feel easily when pushing the end of a new wristpin into the rod. The clearance spec is well under a half-thousandth if I remember right. Reason I ask is because a sloppy rod/wristpin will usually eat a new topend in short order.

 

[Mr.Grandtastic]

Had a brain fart and realized the other day what you were talking about. I actually didn't pay attention about the play around the wrist pin and whatnot. It'll be later that I'll be able to check that. After looking at some videos and whatnot, I'm starting to think that I bet the piston rod is shot and splitting the case and getting a piston arm kit are in the near future. Never split the case before so kinda nervous. I'll update my findings when I get the chance.

 

[retro]

If you need the crankshaft rebuilt, Vince at mrcrankshaft.com is a good option. You send your crankshaft in and get a rebuilt one back with a better quality (better than OEM) Vesrah rod kit installed and balanced and its cheaper than buying an OEM crank.

 

[Manny]

definitely not normal - Check for a bent push rod, or worn lifter/bucket assembly.

 

[misterclean59]

definitely not normal - Check for a bent push rod, or worn lifter/bucket assembly.

Yes I agree. It does not sound like anything lower than the valve train. It just may not be adjusted tight enough either. I always make the adjustment on the tight side of the range.......maybe a little tighter than that. I do know that all honda engine can be made quiet.........they are not ticking if everything is good.

 

[Mr.Grandtastic]

When I been taking it apart, the push rods and everything looked good. After the jug and piston replacement I redid my work to replace the cam chain, which I checked the cam and everything that looked good. I'll recheck everything though. Gotta do honeydo's first. Been putting a lotta stuff off working on this rig in my spare time, surprised the wife hasn't killed me yet! Thanks for the advise! Like I said, hopefully soon I'll message my findings.

 

[beaverslayer]

I believe I know exactly what your cause is. Did you buy one of those top end rebuild kits off of eBay or Amazon. I've installed 2 of these recently and had the exact same noise you have. One was worse than the other. All the parts were within Honda's tolerance. However, when I measured the Piston in a spot that wasn't specified but compared to an oem Piston it was out by 0.018. I went ahead and changed the Pistons in them and the noise completely went away. That's the only variable I changed. Those parts look great and the cylinder jug is great for the money, but for some reason the Piston specs are crap. Also the hole for the wrist pin was lower than the oem. Piston slap was causing the noise.

 

[retro]

Another ticking source we tend to forget to mention is damages to valve stems and adjuster studs due to neglect. This is a very extreme example from a 450 Foreman motor... but these problems are found often with varying amounts of damage, while working on used Hondas.

As you can see feeler gauges become useless tools for measuring gaps once the valve stem and adjuster stud become beat up and/or worn out.

Using a feeler as I took this motor apart, this one measured .009" on the exhaust valve and .019" on the intake valve. But those actual gaps were much wider due to the concave depressions beat into the tops of the stems. I was only able to measure a portion of those gaps using a flat feeler gauge. If I were to guess that intake valve lash was probably in the neighborhood of .030 or so, minimum. In fact it is so badly beat that soon it would have dropped that valve onto the piston... it was getting perilously close to knocking loose the valve keepers.

The intake valve stem was beat so badly that I had to grind off a wide burr on the stem top so I could pull that valve out through the valve guide.

Incidentally, the valve guide IDs and stems ODs were both still well within specs. The seats were in excellent condition as well. This is a common example of owner neglect.

This guy was lucky, two new OEM valves and new OEM adjuster studs along with new OEM valve seals is all that cylinder head needed to return it to like new condition.

But getting back to the point of this post... always inspect the adjuster studs and the valve stem tops while adjusting valve lash with feeler gauges. If those stem tops are worn a bit and no longer flat the gaps will be wider than can be measured. Those valves will tick and wear and hammer out very fast.. leading your valves & adjusters to resemble this shameful example.

 

[misterclean59]

Wow retro, that's a bad rocker!

 

[SamUK]

Has this been diagnosed yet? A worn con rod (little end/piston end) will cause a tick. Other than adjustments through the break in period there's not a lot else it could be if everything has been replaced.
The big end (crank end) of the con rod usually give s much more substantial noise, you'd call it a knock rather than a tap or tick.