Chevy Performance "Crate Motor" Warranty Adventure

[10BamBam01]

Hi, Everyone. On July 4th my brother and I installed a new Chevy Performance ZZ454 in my 72 GMC K1500. I am already having some issues that require warranty service. I now get a chance to experience the real value of GM's crate warranty and I thought others might be interested in how this turns out as well. Therefore, I'm starting a thread to document this process so others can learn from this experience. Here are the details so far:

July 4th - completed install of ZZ454 purchased new from Summit with the following components:

Holley 770 Ultra Street Avenger carburetor
Chevy Performance dizzy (part # 93440806).
Summit # 250022-1 110 GPH Fuel Pump
Sanderson headers (#SNH-BB8-SEC Silver Coated)
Driven BR30 Break-in oil
PTP-7-509BL motor mounts

I swapped the new water pump on the ZZ454 (long style) with my existing 402 pump (short style). Had to do a minor cut to the cross member to get the headers to fit. Also had to grind the walls of a spark plug socket to install the #3 spark plug. Plugs had to come out to install the headers once the engine was bolted to the new mounts.

Primed the engine with oil using a primer tool. The engine fired right up on the first attempt and ran perfectly with some minor adjustments to the timing. Ran the engine according to start-up instructions. Drove for 30 miles and then changed the break-in oil with Driven XP8 5W30 racing motor oil (non-synthetic). Drove the truck back home 97 miles with open headers. On Monday I had a new dual 3" exhaust system installed with a H pipe. Since then I have driven the truck another 100 miles or so and have been generally pretty happy with it. I've been careful to vary my speed and all the other standard break-in procedures for a new engine.

Yesterday (Wednesday) I noticed a rhythmic ticking sound coming from the engine. I crawled under the truck with the engine running and noticed a drip of oil coming from the top / back of the driver's side cylinder head. It's a slow drip but nonetheless it's an oil leak.

The ticking sound concerns me because 1) it's new and 2) it disappears as engine speed increases. I'm thinking it may be a collapsed lifter and that the clicking disappears because the oil pressure increases with the increase in RPMs. I am praying that this hasn't caused any other issues with the engine.

I called Summit this morning. They instructed me to call my local GM dealer for warranty repair, which I've done. I have an appointment for it on Monday at 8:00AM. We shall see what the dealer finds and how GM responds. I'll keep this thread updated as I progress.