Vintage BMW Motorcycle Owners

Today I finally took the licensing test and passed it successfully. Immediately after that I drove around a bit and put about 60 km on the watch (that's about 37 miles). At the beginning of the ride I started to hear slight metallic ticks on the right side. With the ride they got stronger.
The motorcycle still starts first kick and behaves great.
In this Barrington Motor Works video, at about 02:50 - there's an explanation regarding ticking's:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCTpwScRE5w
I don't recall any free play there while I worked on that head, but will take my time and check it, to see if that is also my case.

What else can cause a noisy engine head?

The motor has new pushrods, guides, followers, valves and springs on both sides and while test running the bike in the neighborhood the engine was quiet.

Pull the valve covers and recheck everything. Maybe your gap has opened up.

Valve clearance like Kurt said.

Like the others noted, check the valve clearance. I’d also retorque the head while you are there. I find the head gaskets compress a bit through the first few heat cycles.

Could be pinging on one cylinder only due to important timing difference. If you have a timing light, have a look. Or check static advance on both cylinders.

But I would rather think of valve gaps.
Laurent.

Well, the ticking is still there.
Valve clearance is ok and timing is via PowerDynamo.
Oil is Castrol 40 grade for vintage use.

It is not a rattling, it is more like tick tick tick.

I am now thinking a bit out-of-the-box in order to understand why it is happening (and why only on one side).
Could it be a bent push rod?

Check the end play on the rocker arm shafts
Should be almost zero
Put each valve in fully closed position and see if their is any up and down play
If so loosing the head bolts for that side and tap end blocks together but not to tight so the rocker arm still moves freely
May be easier to remove rocker arm and use a vise to narrow the end play

Once removed you can also check the push rods

Tommy

The noise also at idle ?

Without going into a long drawn out and expensive story (16 years, crank shaft rebuild) I would like to suggest you take a look at your ignition points and that system in general. I am painfully familiar with a potential lower end rod knock that turned out to be a set of bad ignition points. Funny how we jump to the most difficult and expensive resolution before we check everything, even stuff that just doesn't seem possible or related.

C.K wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 14, 2022 4:14 pm

The noise also at idle ?

Yes.