I had a loud ticking coming from my motor tonight, thought it might have been a rod knocking or a lifter but not all that sure. What do you guys think it could be? What are the signs of a bad rocker? The noise went away though after i let the car sit for a while, now its gone. What could be cuasing this? Or what could this be, I have no idea.

 

is it cold? sometimes the motors will make more noticable ticks when it's cold, before it warms up,

 

no, thats the thing, its warm, very warm, like 180. I was loud, then it went away when it sat and now it is gone. Could my motor be on its way out?

 

well find out if its a tick or a knock. if its a knock it could be your main bearings, i toasted these in two 2.8s....

just get in the car and take it up the street and notice if the motor is louder than normal under acceleration, if its knocking it could be mains,

ticking could be lifters? not as serious

 

well, the noise is gone now, like i said it went away. If the main bearings are going, how do you replace them, do you have to pull the motor? Sound like the lifters are ticking now, put i know before it was bad, it was loud, you could even here it when you reved it up. Would it still be bearing if its gone now? Does it come and go?

 

i doubt bearing noise will go away, but you will know for sure in a couple days to a week, once they started on my 2 motors, they never got better, and to change them yes you have to haul out motor, take off basepan, and they are right there...

here's a pic, half dark tho

 

Does not look fun. Now if its the lifters, can I leave them or what should i do there? Also could it be a rod on it way out?

 

not sure what you would do about lifters, not that difficult to replace them.....

and what type of rod, connecting or pushrod...

connecting rod would make a loud noise i would imagine, mine got lodged into teh cylinder wall when my main bust on my last motor or vice-versa..

not sure what a pushrod would do

 

lifters usually knock when cold & then stop when warm (pumped up w/oil), usually.

 

im just gonna play devil's advocate and suggest that it might be detonation perhaps? you said it did it with the motor hot.. and going into summer months and the price of gas going up and quality going down.... i dont know your skill with a vehicle, but if its not determinable whether its top end or bottom end, its an easier fix to try a higher octane or cooler temps.. of course i may be totally off base.

 

i drove it today, and the noise was gone, i run mid-grade in my car. I think heat my have played a roll and the oil was so thin, could this be?

 

check your plugs

 

My wife's '91 3.1 with 200,075 miles on the odometer has had an intermittent knock for the last 25,000 that I have been aquainted with the car.

A main bearing or connecting rod will knock all the time and get progressively louder with applied RPM/Load.

Ours comes and goes, seems to be "mid engine"

Things it could be-

A loose timing chain slapping the cover.

Piston slap from bore wear.

A worn cam thrust button (if you have a roller cam) that allows the cam to walk back and forth in the block

Worn wrist pins/wrist pin bushings that as they move around can get off a worn spot and make no noise, then shift to a loose spot and make noise.

You can check the timing chain by removing the distributor rotor and turning the engine with a socket on the end of the crankshaft and a breaker bar, if you hold the rotor still and the crankshaft can be turned more than enough to take up the small amount of slack that's in a chain and the gear lash betwen the cam and distributor drive gears, there could be your problem.

As far as bore wear I have had a 2.5 in an S10 that blew a head gasket- non working temp gauge and a coolant leak caused it to get really hot and slightly score the #2 and #3 cylinders. You could rock the pistons back and forth in the bores easily. I threw a reconditioned head and new gasket on it, in ran another 25,000 clattering like hades until it holed a piston from spark knock due to a bad knock sensor- but amazingly it used no oil or smoked.

Eric

 

n/m

 

Thanks guys. I have never had this problem before. Could my oil have gotten so then that it wasn't doing anything? Then when i let it sit, it got thicker and that made the noise go away? Thats the only thing i can think of, i'm almost postive my head gasket is not gone. I was leaking raditator fluid and fixed that then let the car run and i heard the noise. The temp. of the car never went about 205. so i doubt any harm was done to the engine. What is detonation? What do you guys recommand i run in there for oil? I have about 129,000 miles on my car right now. The other thing i forgot to mention was when i turned the motor over i could here it then when i turned the ign. off and the motor was shutting off you could here the knocking noise until it stop spinning. I don't know if that helps or not though. The noise sounded as though it came from the rear of the motor. (towards the firewall) Thanks for the advice guys

 

oil pressure/oil level?

When my wifes 2.6 got hot a couple time s it did that but it was hot and running real rough.

 

At idle it runs about 40, plenty of oil in her.

 

What kind of oil are you using? I notice on my 3.1, synthetic oil will cause my lifters to tick.

EDIT: When it gets hot, I mean.

I also notice a nice dripping of oil right about where the rear main seal lies

 

I have heard of that. synthetic will leak like that for no reason, where regular oil won't or don't when they switch back.

 

think the problem lies in that syntetic oil is more refined, and a finer grade. Because of this, it'll leak through smaller places that the regular oil will simply "seal". I konw with the instilation of my new engine, the company (jasper) recommended that you don't use synthetic oils in her, and...i haven't....and with the exception of some stupid leaks (intake, oil pan, rear cam seal) she's running well enough....knock on wood.

 

is 5w-30 alright oil to run in a car with 128,000 miles on it. I thinkign i need thicker oil and thats where that soudn came from, what do you guys think?

 

Synthetic oil is actually "grown", produced in a lab. Not to flame and anything of the matter ... nice little fact that I pick up.

I just got done replacing all my hydraulic valve lifters because 3 of them collapsed and seven others were restricting flow.
The lifters made a soft taping sound but got louder when the engine warmed up, plus continued on till the engine was turned off.
If you think it could be a lifter then try this. Get a large long screwdriver and place it on the valve cover. While the engine is running place your ear on the handle and listen to the sound(s) inside the cover and slide the screwdriver down (front to back). Repeat on other side.
If any tapping occurs it will be noticeable. (you can also do this test on your injectors to see if its clogged, injectors should make a clear "click" sound.)


If you could make this sound how would it sound to us:
..Like a pen tip or pen butt tapping a hard floor really fast or
..Like a tuna can hitting a hard floor



edit: word fill in/ spelling correction

 

What he said!!!

 

if it goes away after a while sounds like it could be a stuck lifter if it gets louder like mine did during acceleration then its not a bent pushrod, lifter, or pulley its a connecting rod. One way to tell is cut a piece of water hose about 2 and a half feet long, start the car and put one end of the hose near the engine block where a piston would be and listen to it when you find the loud noise, bam thats the rod about to go. it works about 60% of the time.

 

My guess is your engine is either detenating due to the hot intake temp. and using 87octane doesn't help.

check your rockers, and oil pressure and your plugs and wires...might wanna check your cap & rotor also.

 

My first car was an 86 comaro with a 2.8 and my uncle descided to do a brake stand after the car was sitting for 3 yrs. It knocks like heck but I can get a new engine for that this weakend. I've decided to fix that than my firebird for now. Still trying to though.