Video of My 4G63 Making Expensive Sounds

[Bluesideup]

OK I took this video tonight. The engine is a '95 4G63T swapped into a Mirage. When the engine was in the donor car it made the whining noise you hear but I thought it was the timing belt idler and tensioner pulleys. I replaced those when the engine was out and ran it without the accessories to make sure there was no noise.

Now the noise is back and definitely not coming from the belts. The new sound is the rattle present just above idle. The rattle only comes at 900 rpm and is gone by 1000 rpm. It's hard to tell where the noises are coming from but it seems they are coming from the back of the head or block.

Any ideas on either noise?

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[badabing33a]

Might as well take off the valve cover. Takes like 5 mins and you just took off the oil pan which takes alot longer. Is there any smell, smoke, leaking air, or anything abnormal?

 

[Bluesideup]

No smoke or weird smells. The oil was dark but that was expected given that it probably hadn't been changed in a while since I did it.

The timing belt doesn't have any strange marks. I used a short pry bar to wiggle the harmonic balancer and it seems solid. I'll be opening up the timing side and pulling the valve cover today if I have time.

I've been looking for pics of the balance shafts out of the car but haven't found anything yet, mainly looking for the coloring issue I mentioned.

 

[Auto RS T]

Had a similar noise, like Webconnect, I found that the oil pump gears were rubbing on the oil pump housing internally, do to the stubby shaft bolt backing out and dropping it in the pan. Check that the bolt is tight in the front of the oil pump gear.

 

[JusMX141]

The balance shafts that I just removed from my FWD's block had the bluing around the bearing surface as well. I believe it has something to do with the hardening of the bearing surface.

 

[blackrosenova40]

Did you check your timing belt pully's? Sounds like they have bad bearings. Or one of them does anyway. Also check if your harmonic balancer is seperated and rubbing against the timing belt cover. Notorious for doing that.

 

[Bluesideup]

OK well that is good to know. When I get the timing side apart I'll look at the oil pump to see if the bolt is coming loose.

Auto RS-T did you have the rattle noise or the higher pitched whining noise?

jusmx how is the vibration without the shafts? I am going to be taking this thing all apart anyway so I'm considering just deleting the shafts anyway.

Here's what the top of the head looks like now that I've removed the valve cover.

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Cam lobes look fine. No side to side play in the cams at all.

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[Auto RS T]

OK well that is good to know. When I get the timing side apart I'll look at the oil pump to see if the bolt is coming loose.

Auto RS-T did you have the rattle noise or the higher pitched whining noise?

I had the whining noise. Any other DSM and I would have thought the timing belt was too tight. Well I happen to put the belt on this particular car and knew that wasn't the problem, a belt doesn't tighten itself up. Upon inspection I had that grainy feel to my oil pump, that Webconnect mentioned about. I kept tearing it down and found the stubby shaft in the pan, then saw where the gears were rubbing the front case on the inside. Put in a new front case/gears and flushed the oil out, the car is still running, but I told the owner it may need bearings/rebuilt.

 

[1slo1g]

i know this is a long shot but check your intake manifold gasket. it sounds like the gasket is "whistling" it happen it me before on my exhaust manifold after i forgot to tight a nut up.

 

[Bluesideup]

Auto RS T thank you for the help. I will pull the timing side and check this out. Bummer if I need a new housing and pump since they are $280 or so but that would be nice to figure it out before something more expensive happens!

I'll check the intake gasket, it does hold pressure pretty well during a BLT.

I hope to get the timing side apart this week, we'll see if that works out.

 

[cemille01]

def sounds like oil pump or water pump imo

 

[Bluesideup]

Grr. I removed the balance shafts and checked the bottom end while I had the pan off. The whining noise is gone but I still have the rattle noise. In fact it seems a little worse.

Cam caps are all fine, the torque values all checked good.

The rockers and valve springs all look good.

The flywheel hasn't loosened up.

The downpipe is tight

Right now there are no accessories or timing covers on the engine, just the timing belt and harmonic balancer

I pulled the spark plug wires one by one and it didn't change anything other than the rattle getting louder due to the rpms dropping down. At idle speed there is no rattle, above idle it rattles and below idle it rattles.

Looks like I'll have to pull the pan again. Everything looked good and there was no side to side play when I checked the rods last time. There was no discoloration on any of the rods.

I'm also going to run the car with the clutch disengaged so I can make sure it's not the transmission making noise.

edit:

Pulled the pan and the rod caps

Here are the pics of the rod bearings.

Caps from left to right 4,3,2,1

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Journal 4

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Journals 2 & 3

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Journal 1

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