Valve noise

Okay, I'm ready to work on the beast again. I finally got the accelerator cable tube rerouted which was the most frustrating thing I've done on the car so far.

But here's the question again, I readjusted the valves a couple of weeks ago because it had really loud valve tapping. I had adjusted my valves too tight while the motor was on the bench. I started the motor up last weekend after the valve job and the valves are still pretty loud. I haven't heard a 914 run in years but I don't remember hearing any tapping noise. I'm going to recheck/adjust the valves again this weekend but what if that doesn't fix it?
Is the valve noise a sign of .....what exactly? That the head is about to drop a seat? That I need new valve guides?

Thanks in advance for any help,


ShawnO
1975 914 2.0L

[drumvudu]

In my experience, you don't get any audible warning that you are about to drop a seat. If you have solid lifters, you should be getting some valve train noise. Did you check the adjusters for pitting? If they heavily pitted, they will certainly be louder than {normal}. Are you running HD springs? They can also cause slightly more VT noise. Have you checked your oil(kidding)?

[BenI]

If you listen, you will here the tapping. I think the thing with these engines is they are loud enough and require enough tweeking over time that it's easy to become hypersensitive to noise. Too often Ive taking the machine out and remarked, "what's that noise?" and then tried to remember if it was always there or not. My test for excessive valve noise is to go for a drive along a street with curbs. This amplifies the valve noise and helps me determine if there's a side that is louder than the other. WIth the engine idling, and no reflective surfaces around (is vertical curbs, walls...) you should be able to here the tappets, but they shouldn't drown out the rest of the engine noise.

[Jake Raby]

Sounds like you may have wiped an adjusting screw, or you may have a rocker shaft that is worn, giving a bit of rocking motion to the arm....Find out what it is, a piece of fuel hose makes a good stethoscope to find which valve it really is.

Congratulations drumvudu and Raby. I pulled all (4) adjusters off of 4 and 3. Cylinder 3 wasn't making any noise but #4 was the one making all the racket. The whole face of the adjusters on #4 were pits but #3's were fine. I can't tell you if it has cured the valve noise or not because I started the car up and had forgotten to install my new mechanical oil pressure gauge unit. Luckily the car only ran about 20 seconds before I saw the geyser of oil coming out the top of my motor.

Thanks for your help!
ShawnO
ShawnO

[RustyWa]

So ShawnO.....did replacing the pitted valve adjuster screw help your valve train noise......?

Oops I didn't tell you did I.

It totally fixed it. I took some used adjusters off my 1.8 parts car motor. They still had a few marks on them but were pretty much whole. I tried to take some digital pics of the adjusters but I've got a cheap camera and can't focus that small. The entire face of the half of the old adjusters are pitted.

There is still some valve noise which I contribute to the adjusters being somewhat worn already and because it's a solid lifter motor. I drove the car last weekend and ran like a champ except for the oil leak. I'll be buying new adjusters along with some seals from PP next week. I'll try to update.


Kudos to drumvudu and Jake for the troubleshoot and thanks to the others!