B20 engine noise

[tonydgray]

Hi all

I have an engine noise and I'm hoping its the tappets although I'm not quite sure and I'm worried its something a little more serious. I've adjusted the tappets using a click adjust as per a previous post of mine so all should be good on the clearance front. Saying this though I will go over them again to see if that makes a difference. I'm also going to try the ground down feeler gauge option that caters for wear a the point where the valve meets the rocker arm.

I've posted a short vid on the tube so that you can have a listen. To me the sound has more of a donk the a light tap and hence the worry. I've also done a longer round trip of 100 miles on Sunday whereas I usually potter 5 miles back and forth to work. Maybe this longer trip has uncovered an issue with the engine.

http://youtu.be/siAvoQtfqYg

As always any help is much appreciated.

Cheers

Tony

[CliffHeaton]

A good way to isolate the noise is to listen through a tube pressed against any suspect part of the engine. Having listened to it I'd suspect a tappet or maybe the water pump. Good luck finding it, hope it's not too serious.

[asneddon]

Another thing is to check the oil. Mine gets noiser when the oil gets old. I only get ~2000miles out of the oil at the moment. Lots of cold starting and short runs.

[tonydgray]

Thanks for the replies.

I've just gone the whole hog and paid a whole £5 for a mechanics stethoscope, will try it out tonight.

On the oil front, just done an oil change so it has some new good quality oil in there as well so that should rule that one out.

When I had a look/listen last night with the engine idling the noise did not get any louder when I took the oil filler cap out. If it was a tappet would you think that it would get louder?

Thanks again

Tony

[VolvoFan]

It certainly does sound like a tappet. If you gently rev up, does the noise get faster or disappear? If it disappears at higher engine speed, it's unlikely to be wide tappet clearance.

[mikealder]

Take the drive belts to the power steering and alternator/ water pump off and try running the engine for a minute or two, if the noise has gone you can start to look at which unit is faulty in the knowledge that it won't be internal engine related - Mike

[tonydgray]

Thanks guys

VolvoFan:
The noise stays but it just gets faster with the engine speed. I wish it was a tappet but I've adjusted the buggers three times now using a clickadjust tool. I double checked the clicks and I'm sure all is well with the clearance unless something weird is going on. On the sweedspeed forum a chap has mentioned about cam bush/bearing which when worn introduces play, maybe that's a possible.

Mike:
Good point, I'll double check that.

Cheers

Tony

[tonydgray]

Here's that latest video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqsVP...ature=youtu.be

Cheers

Tony

[classicswede]

Hi Tony,

very hard to say for sure what the noise is from avideo but one possible is teh timing gear breaking up? Have a close listen to teh front cover.

[turbotroll]

Tony,

I have the same noise in my B20A (1972 145, which has done just over 100k). Valve clearances have been set to 15 thou with a warm engine, which has helped slightly. Timing gears have also been replaced with steel gears. This helped to quieten the noise initially however it returned after a few hundred miles. The feeling now is that it is a worn camshaft lobe and/or camshaft bearing.