You can bet the company knows what it is, but it's a lot cheaper to say "normal" than having to fix them. The fact that something works on one engine and not another just means they are all over the place on quality control.
That all depends what they believe is normal or not. For instance, if you don't consider this noise, then the engines are all working the same...
Anyways, this has been bothering me too on my 07 SERK. Prev owner had the SE 251 cams installed, and the ticking happens pretty much all over the RPM range, but I have no idea what sound it was making before with the regulaer cams. "Sounds like a sewing machine" is exactly what I and other people are saying, plus a general sensation of gritting/rasping in the engine. Like everyone else here, this noise is really taking away the fun in the ride.
In my case the mechanic seemed to think part of the noise (maybe not just the ticking) came from the cam chain tensioner & bad oil flow, and told me a change to a "SCREAMIN’ EAGLE HYDRAULIC CAM CHAIN TENSIONER AND HIGH-FLOW OIL PUMP UPGRADE" would "probably" solve this ticking pb, as it apparently did so on the boss's 2011 CVO street glide. They didn't have the parts in stock so it's still not done.
I'm not sure sure it's needed anymore now with all that has been said on this thread? Better oil flow is probably good for such a big engine, but if it's not going to fix the issue at hand ...
I also plan on putting Andrews 54 cams as I want more torque and lower RPM and Steve at Fullsac has been nice enough to explain that the SE 251 are more a top range set of CAM - I'm learning quite a lot about engines right now!
Would such a set of cam enough to fix or at least attenuate the ticking? Or from Scott's posts, do I also have to change lifters & pushrods? Given it's all connected I assume it's hard to say without actually trying. How do you adjust such rods? do you have to open up the engine every time?
This all sounds expensive no matter what though. If a 15 000 miles maintenance was charged 500€, I can't imagine how much it's gonna take to go through all those steps! Crap
