Thread: rattle in head area???

ok, heres the rundown. my sr20 ever since i bought it had a weird tick/knock. when i start the car it kinda knocks for a split second, then goes away. i developed slight rod knock in my #2 cylinder. i replaced all bearings with oem graded bearings. the noise only starts at like 2500rpm to 3krpm and then goes away after that. i opened the vc and everything looks good. all the shims are in place. when i did the bearings i noticed in the oil pickup, all types of junk. i found the rubber grommit and metal washer from the vc in there, along with some other pieces of misc rubber chunks(previous owner). i wasnt convinced that it was the bearings. the noise sounds like its coming from the head area(more pronounced by the #2 and #3 intake side. i stopped by chriscar house and he listened to it and he feels the noise is too fast and rattly to be a bearing. he said it sounds like its in the head, too. he gave me a spare timing chain tensioner and i changed that and still the same noise. what else could it be??can a lifter do this?it only makes the sound between 2500-3000rpm and then sounds normal again. ive been searching non stop for days and listening to sound clips of bad lifters. a bad lifter seems to make noise even at idle, so is this possible that i could have a bad lifter even though its sounds normal at idle? any other suggestions of what to check would be GREATLY appreciated. thanks in advance

sounds like a lifter to me (except its not making noise at idle), i'm pretty sure is wrong with the det motor sitting in our 240, but its been parted out so i cant start it up for you to compare

i have a bunch of spare lifters if you wanna try and change them out

thanks, bro. i appreciate the input. im gonna pull the vc in about 15min and im gonna see if they feel spongy. ill let ya know about the lifters. thanks again

ok....pulled the vc and all the lifters are stiff. do i have to remove the cams to tell?or is the way i did it, pretty much the way its done. i just pushed on the rocker arm where the lifter is and nothing. i left the vc off incase you guys think of anything else. there is something in the head that rattles on start and starts to rattle again when the oil thins out....thats my theory. what could this be?