Waveline24

BT Yes, I have a Gen 5 Motor.

Well I drained the oil and refilled with some 20w 50 just to be safe.

There were no visible metal particles in the flow of the draining oil. That would be good.

Started up and it seemed about the same.

Hmm

mcollinstn

Gen 5 and 6 do have bolt-down rockers that are torqued to 40.
A collapsed lifter will behave as you describe.

A 5w-30 synthetic is not the same as a 5w-30 conventional oil. A synthetic's "w" rating is it's Winter rating and describes how well the oil will flow or pour at a cold temperature (either 32 or 0 F, I can't remember which). In other words, this particular synthetic will pour as well at a cold temperature as a fixed 5 weight fluid. The 30 refers to the viscosity equivalent. The lube will act as a 30 weight in its load-bearing performance hot, cold, or otherwise as long as it is in its temp range (up to 300 on synthetics).

The 5w-30 he has used is not a problem from the 5 standpoint since the lube is not saying that its load bearing qualities are similar to a 5 weight, only its pourability.

With that said, he still needs to use a lube with a 40 weight equivalency.

TomFTM

Check the valve hieght , pull the valve cover and see if all the valves appear to be the proper hieght . I have seen quite a few motors this year with valves that were overheated and sucked up into the head. This happens with extended high speed runs with inadiquit valves or lean condition....Good Luck , Tom

blue thunder

Cut the filter open Waveline and inspect closely in the filter media for metal. Magnifying glass will help. Don't think you would see it in the flow of oil. Very important step here.

BT

Waveline24

Another day and hopefully I will have some time to look at this problem some more. My neighbor seems to think I can narrow down the search for the problem. He said if I start the motor and pull plugwires and listen for the sound to stay the same or go away.. He said if I pull and then put them back 1 at a time, I can get some information. If it does NOT go away, he said it would most likely be valvetrain. If it DOES go away, he suggests the bottom end has the problem.

What do you think of this?

Back4More

The wire thing is an old EFI trick.
Sounds like a lifter or a cam lobe with the talk of the thin syn. oil and all.

eTman

Waverline, if you ran light oil my guess is you collapsed a lifter & bent a push rod or both, when the lifter collapse it leaves a big gap for the push rod to come out of its socket & get bent, for sure those lifter do collapse with light oil, at least hydraulic ones do. You need to take the valve covers off & get the engine on top dead zero on # 1 & check each of the rockers on intake & exhaust plus try and rotate the push rods on #1, if ok then move to the next one in firing order by turning the crank next degree maker, hopefully its marked & you run down using the firing order, I believe BB is 18436572, 1 3 5 7 is on the right facing front of engine & 2 4 6 8 on the left in the order front to back. Look for broken valve springs also along the check.
This is easy for the experienced, but might be a little tough for a novice.
Any. questions feel free to write.

SeaRay Jim

I may not be crazy, there's more support for my collapsed lifter therory!

One thing I'd warn against, although I'm not a builder and it's been a long time since I've even torn one down, if it is a collapsed lifter and you keep running, like TMan said, there could alredy be damage due to the pushrod jumping out etc., but even if not, it could damage the cam lobe if it keeps beating on it.

I hope you find it's something much simpler though.

HARRISONMIRAGE

WAVELINE
I HAVE ALWAYS USED PENZOIL 20/50 AND PURE 1 FILTERS AND DO OIL CHANGES EVERY 25 HOURS.I BOAT IN COLD WATER LIKE YOU AND BOAT FROM MARCH TO OCTOBER.I DON'T THINK YOUR PROBLEM IS OIL RELATED.I WOULD TRY AS YOUR NIEGHBOR SUGESTED AN PULL PLUG WIRES 1 AT A TIME AND LISTEN FOR A WIRE THAT DOES NOT MAKE THE ENGINE RPM DROP.IF YOU HAVE A CYLINDER THAT DOES NOT AFECT THE RPM IT MEANS THAT HOLE IS DEAD(COLLAPSED LIFTER,BURNT VALVE ECT.)I DOUBT YOU BENT A PUSH ROD AS I HAVE THE STOCK 3/8 PUSH RODS IN MY GEN V BLOCK AS YOU AND I RUN MINE PRETTY HARD UP TO 5000 RPM.CUT THE OIL FILTER APART AS WAS SUGGESTED AND LOOK FOR BEARING MATERIAL,BUT IT DOESN'T SOUND LIKE BOTTOM END FROM WHAT YOU DESCRIBED.ALSO CHECK THE TOTALY OBVIOUS.I HAD A NEW MOTER START MAKING AN AWFULL TICKING NOISE WHEN I WAS BREAKING THE CAM IN AND IT TURNED OUT TO BE THE WATER PUMP PULLEY BOLTS WERE LOOSE.KEEP US INFORMED AND RMEMBER HOW MUCH YOU LOVE BOTING AS YOURE CUSSIN AWAY UNDER THE HATCH.

Mbam

This may be not be even close, but worth ruling out. Poke around the exhaust manifold with a piece of hose to your ear. An exhaust leak can sound very much like a mechanical noise.