Hi guys, recently my car has been developing some kind of tick/knock and it seems pretty hard to diagnose. I believe I heard it faint before, and then it became worse after driving the car too hard on a cold night, and when I pulled the oil it was pretty black after 3,500 miles and also down to 4 qts. I was running Castrol GTX and switched over to Amsoil Signature, both 5w-30. I believe the noise is more pronounced after the oil change, it has 100 miles on the new oil currently.


The noise is at the start of the video, the loud tick/knock. I can hear it in the cabin if I listen closely, maybe twice per second. It's only really audible at idle, I think it happens during driving but it's lost to road noise. Very hard to hear on cold starts, so it's louder with a warm engine. It doesn't get louder. I'm willing to devote a week in December/January to tearing apart the engine and fixing the problem, but need to know what parts to order first. Thanks guys!

I know the guy in the second video let his go and needed a new engine after 6-8 months. Mine's been there for about 2 weeks. Guesses so far are fuel damper, lifter stuck/out of spec, or some kind of knock.

Video:



Also sounds similar to this G:

 

Bump, anyone?

I believe it may be a bent lifter or broken spring, so I'm going to tear it apart once I get the chance. It would be nice to have some opinions first though as that's going to be a massive job.

 

Sounds like a problem with a lifter to me. Can you hear it inside the engine bay if someone else sits in the car and revs the engine up to about 2K RPM while you stand in front of the car?

How hard exactly did you drive it when the car was cold that you think started the problem? Did you start it up stone cold and immediately redline it within like 30 seconds in sub-40 degree temps?

 

Yea it's present at all times in the engine, most notably at idle since it's mostly lost to road noise/exhaust when driving but I can tell it's consistent and changes with the RPMs. I'm thinking it may be easier to buy a used rev up cylinder head and swap it in. And yea, I'm an idiot. I did one burnout, hit 2nd and stopped at 40ish. Damage is done and I learned my lesson.

 

I don't think that would be easier... not to mention that it definitely would cost more. You'd have to take off a whole bunch more parts to remove the head, not to mention the whole fiasco of the timing. The only bad thing about going at it as if it were a simple lifter replacement is that you won't be 100% sure that it's the real source of the problem until you rip the motor apart. You could end up with the car down and not working for a decent amount of time if you rip it apart and diagnose the problem and then order the parts based on that diagnosis and wait for them to come in.

Do you have another car or means of transportation to use while the car is inoperable?

Maybe you can take off the parts on the top of the motor blocking access to the heads, and remove the valve covers and try to see what you can find that way. You're probably going to have to remove your spark plugs, unplug the fuel system, and rotate the motor with the spark plugs out by the starter so that you can identify which lifter is making noise. I'm no expert in that area though... just trying to point you in the right direction.

 

I can pull the valve covers and identify which valve is faulty by using a feeler gauge or leakdown test. Either way, if I have to replace a valve, I'll have to take off the head regardless and then do the math and figure out which of the 27 valves I need to replace it with. I'm going to just get a new or used OEM head and save myself the time of ordering parts. Thanks for the advice though