Please tell me its valve clatter.


Here's what I know.
- Sound seems to be coming from the head, and it seems to be coming from the part above cylinder number 4. Furthest away from the oil pump
- Its not there when its cold, but it is there when the car gets pretty warm, i.e. after a bit of a drive.
- Its not the t-vis, I tried disconnecting it, sound doesn't change.
- First time it happened is after I actually figured out that my t-vis vacuum piping was wrong and I got the t-vis working again. I drove it pretty hard after this and the sound became apparent during the last few minutes of the drive. Somehow it seems that its more audible the harder I drive the car....
- Performance has not decreased car still accelerates hard.
- Engine absolutely always shakes like it wants to die when the rpms drop back down to 900. Even when I manually slowly return the throttle with my hand on the throttle cable bracket.
- exhaust smells like its running rich. Timing is 100% at 10 bdtc.

Video link is missing...

Cheers... jondee86

I am the king of idiots.

https://youtu.be/FL9UDKYHeQ8

Here it is.

It is notoriously difficult to diagnose "ticking" noises when you are standing right
next to the engine, and even more difficult over the interweb Plus my ears are
not the best... so mostly I just hear valve train noise.

Since pretty much all the moving parts inside the engine are cushioned by a film
of oil, it is normal for ticking/tapping noises to get a little bit louder when the
engine is hot. When I hear something ticking a bit louder than I like in the top of
the engine, I will pull the valve covers and check the valve clearances.

When the clearances are at the service maximum the valves will be noisy, and
when they are at the service minimum they will much quieter. With a certain
amount of cunning, it is possible to change shims without pulling the cams. But
if you are doing more than one or two shims and you have less than three arms,
it is probably easier to remove the cams.

Otherwise, if you feel that there is something other than valvetrain noise going
on, listen while driving. A lot of "rattles" show up when the engine is lightly loaded.
At idle or just off idle, changing gears, in gear and lift off the throttle. There may
be a brief rattle under these conditions. Rattling under load (if it is not pinking)
or on the overrun is a bad sign, and I think you would know if you had that !!!

Cheers... jondee86

PS: Listen to the vid of my engine idling... https://youtu.be/FK-31DVrsQ4
Valve train ticking and supercharger gears rattling... sounds bad but is normal

mr2mk1hero wrote:Exhaust smells like its running rich.

When you have been for a drive out of town, and before you spend a lot of time
driving slowly in traffic/idling, check the colour of your exhaust tailpipe. Light to
mid brown is good, dark brown is acceptable. Black and sooty means you are running
too rich. Check your plugs... same situation applies.

Timing is 100% at 10 bdtc.

Correct phrasing is "Timing is 100% at 10 btdc when set in diagnostic mode.". When
not in diagnostic mode timing will be 15-17 btdc.

Cheers... jondee86