[RESOLVED] Massive clacking? ticking? rod knocking? after motor rebuild

[Daveed]

I have resolved this but wanted to post up my experience for the benefit of others.

Just got done with a four month rebuild of this car including the entire motor. Crank polish, new main/rod bearings etc etc. The usual rebuild. Even put in the 3g revised lifters. Got it started and has massive amounts of clacking banging coming from the top of the motor. I could not figure it out and I was really bummed and frustrated.

Compression test came out at 165-168 for all four cylinders.
Disconnecting the spark plugs made no difference.
The Rpms didn't matter much neither did load. Really loud at idle and stayed loud all the way up.
Changed the oil and filter (wix) and no difference.

The noise was stronger on the drivers side of the motor. So I pulled the oil cap and could see the oil squirting out of the rockers right onto the cams so oil pressure seemed fine (guage said so also).

I pulled the new lifters and bled them and reinstalled. They made ALOT more noise till they pumped up again but then the same background noise was there. However, until they pumped back up it sounded like there were 20 of the same noise I had before!

Decided to turn the motor over by hand. When I did this I heard the noise and saw one of the came gears (stock) move! That son of a gun had the cam bolt come loose very slightly and was wobbling around a bit and making that deafening CLACK!
Torqued it and loctited it and the noise is gone! Woohoo!

Hope that helps someone out there looking for a really loud ticking clacking banging noise from the top of the motor.

 

[Nick_4567]

No offence to you man but people need to learn how to use a stethascope it would have told you right where it was that was causing the problem. Its not hard to use just get one and listen for echos and where it is loudest. It took me a while to learn that one too. I bet that one drove you up the wall though. I had a simalar problem but it was comming from a blown Hydrolic tensioner and I swore it was comming from the valve train.

 

[Daveed]

No offense taken. A stethoscope was on my list of things to buy tomorrow. I was using a piece of wood to listen for where the noise was coming from. It works surprisingly well (but not good enough in this case) and an old timer showed that trick to me. I was using a 1" dowel that was about 3 feet long. That clack was so loud I could hear it in any part of the motor from the intake elbow to the power steering, the turbo, everything. I never did put the dowel on the came gear cover...not sure why

 

[pinkandgeek]

use one of those long screw drivers and a pair of hearing protection muffs, that pretty decent. Purchasing a stethoscope is a better investment though

 

[northendtrooper]

I just learned that Wood has one more purpose in life!
I don't have a stethoscopes but I should invest into one sooner or later.