balance shafts out of time..?

[AceGAGT]

my car just 3 days ago started ticking. like a lifter tick. oil pressure is running higher than spec, changed the oil yesterday too. and my dad says its just the balance shafts out of time. ok, but what would cause that to happen without it just unthreading or snapping the left-hand bolt on the balance shaft sprocket? ive got about 1200 miles on the rebuild, same balance shafts tho. just new chain n guide n sprocket. and also, what problems could this cause? i hate the sound it makes, but if its not going to harm the engine i wont mess with it for a while. also at idle i noticed today that it surges just the tiniest bit which is annoying but is indicative of an unbalance (to me). and yes i do run the full range from 1000 to 6500 rpm... stupid yes but its how i drive half the time especially w the cam swap...

1996 grand am gt 2.4l cams from a '95 2.3l

[AceGAGT]

have come to the conclusion that it is probably a bad lifter. second from the drivers side... at idle the knock sensor records 9 knocks per second. which idle (940 rpm) divide by 60 for revolutions per second divided by 2, as each lifter moves down once and up once every four revolutions. comes out to 7.83. which would indicate that the lack of oil pressure is cause once other lifter to tick once or twice a second at idle. and of course it grows exponentially as the rpms increase due to said lack of oil pressure to the final lifter. the reason i believe it to b the lifter, is the diagnosis computer reads low oil pressure but its not low enough to cause any kind of indicator light. does this seem like sound logic to you? if you can find a flaw that would indicate the oil pump please let me know. although that probably will be in the doing here soon anyway. just in case.


on another note, the balance shaft chain guide was loose enough that the chain was slapping. slapping hard enough that the knock sensor retarded my timing to zero degrees. now its back to 22-23 degrees advance at idle since i tightened it.

and does anyone know of a cheap place to get good quality lifters? advance told me $12 a piece, napa said $15. but advance cant even order them except maybe direct from the factory. and i dont really want to spend $240 on lifters... if i can avoid that. as i have experienced this problem i refuse to use the other set of lifters that i have. i have no clue what kind of shape they are in. :D thanks for your insights

[AceGAGT]

ok so im thinkin i might put my original cams back in. ive been gettin 24 mpg or so w the '95's and i was gettin 30 somethin w the originals. simply due to the power band. does anyone know where the power band for the full "secret" swap starts? right now im not pullin til roughly 3800 rpms. i cant / refuse to cruise down the interstate at 93 mph tho... so as much as i like the way it pulls into the powerband. it makes me drive like a madman just for the fun of feelin the car move. and my train of thought derailed as im lookin for an apt in dm that allows st bernards... :D