strange noise

[mchuey19629489]

I have a 2002 C10 with a little over 72,000.00 trouble free miles. Maintenance on time all the time. But I noticed a noise coming from the top end that is more pronounced as time goes on, it is more noticeable from the left side by the cam chain but it is also present on the right side. It is not the regular cam chain chatter, that I know for sure.
I am thinking/hoping it is time for a valve adjustment, and I'll get into that this Saturday but the sound is loudest after you blip the throttle and let the rpms come back down, then at about 3,000 you hear it. It does sound like valve chatter, just looking for some insight I guess.
Also it is more noticeable driving thee bike as compared to at idle.
I have had Steve's over-flow tubes for 4 years now.
The bike runs strong, starts easy, will hold a idle all day, runs cool. Just that noise has be bothered?
thanks,
Mark

 

[Konehead34]

Original cam chain tensioner? Or was a manual one installed and it needs tightening?

 

[mchuey19629489]

No I switched to the APE Manual tension sometime ago. I have it adjusted pretty good I think, its more of a noise coming from the exhaust valves and cam. I'm going to dig into it saturday....

 

[Konehead34]

There were some cams that were pretty crappy(technical term) that would pit severely and crumble around the edges of the lobes...

 

[mchuey19629489]

man I hope not. I am on my second set of cams due to that pitting issue.
The first set went at 60,000. so this set is not old and are not high millage although they were used but were in really good shape.
When the first set went bad it made the bike really difficult to tune but minimal noise.

 

[ferabern143]

Hello;
-Alternator chain tensioner.
-Alternator drive loosening.
-Ageing of block silents.
.....

 

[mgoodrich]

One of the valve adjustment nuts could have come loose.

It makes quite a racket when that happens.

 

[Stasch]

The pitted cams generally don't cause an issue - they just look bad.