too much valve ticking

[adida(r 944)]

ok i decided my car is ticking like a time bomb waiting to do what the last engine did (KABOOOM ) ill post some pics of that when i finish taking it apart, may get a kick out of it, or cry.

any thing in particular when rebuilding the head? like valve scores or piston wall gouges(when i got the head off), and should i replace all the valves and springs and retainer clips or just one's that need it? as well as the gaskets. any tips on the spring tension measurements. should i replace the timing belts since ill have the cover off, and not knowing when it was done last?

i think i seen a post of caming but too many pages down to remember. is caming a good idea or waist of time like the K&N air filters, does it all depend on how much to cam. is there much power gain? or a link to caming discusion.

thanks agian

[Panzer909]

K&N filters will open up a whole new discussion all by themselves, but I'd avoid them, IMHO. Someone here a ways back did a shadetree experiement and found that they let way more particles in the engine.

Anyways, are you absolutely sold on the fact that your engine needs a teardown? Nothing wrong with a little tick - mine does it all the time. However, a more pronounced KLAK KLAK KLAK might sound more scarier. I've heard that this could be sticky lifters (it was with mine).

Were there any other warning signs before your other engine packed up? Exactly what happened?

[Ferrara_racing]

Being in marketing, I have a skeptical eye for "company sales manure". Yet, the notion that K&N has built a fitration company based on technology akin to the staw hut contructed by the three little pigs, seems unlikely as well.

Check out www.knfilters.com/facts.htm#myths

You can decide for yourself whether they have a clue. Personally I'm sure they do....

[adida(r 944)]

sorry about this but maybe i should of left the K&N filters out of the subject.

here is what i got going on with my valves at the moment.

At Idle 950-1000 rpms the engine has a tick tick tick sound. when on a little reving 2000rpms to 3000rpms the engine has a little louder Knocking sound. the ticking smooths out but still has a noticeable knocking. this part dont seem right to me so im going to rebuild the head before problems get bigger.

anyone know if there is a way to check the valve spring compresion? tools what not to do this job.

or has anyone tried the Swepco 502 oil? does it help reduce ticking and knocking?

[ae1969]

Before tearing anything apart...

Where is the noise coming from?

Valvetrain? or lower?

[Ferrara_racing]

Oil won't change a condition like you are describing. It's a component problem you have to find.

[adida(r 944)]

as far as my ear can hear it sounds like its coming from the valves, mostly from 3 and 4 maybe more of 4. could a cloged fuel injector be the cuase of this noise? i have NEW fuel injectors on and it still makes the noise. guess the only way to really find out is to take it apart and look at it, and if all else fails, im gonna have to save up a couple of paychecks and rebuild the whole head.

[ae1969]

If the clicking/clanking is coming from the valves its more than likely the hydraulic lifters.

I honestly have not seen a broken valve spring on a 924/944 series since my old 924 over 10 years ago. Not much you can do with the noisy lifters.......

You can try running a liter of ATF to see if you can clean it up somewhat.....

You can pull the cam housing and test them to see if they are failing....

[Ferrara_racing]

Sometimes noises like the one you are describing change tone and cadence when the engine increases RPM. If the noise speeds up too, then you can zero in on the valve or cam. It does not sound like an injector from your description.

[adida(r 944)]

do you guys think it would be a smart thing to run a compresion test on each cylinder? and how exactly do i test them after pulling off the cam housing, is there a speacial tool for this job? or do i need a spring compressor, and removal of all the springs needing testing? or perhaps a Porsche fairy who can fly by and wave a magic wand to make it all better? oh that would be nice... but the Porsche fairy is probly at the end of the rainbow with my pot of gold...

this is why im worried about the ticking.
and a story of my old engine...

When taking apart the old blown up engine(it too had a slight tick to it). looks like the exhaust valve on cylinder #2 became jamed by the hydralic lifter..?.. ( http://www.pelicanparts.com/944/944_parts/944_83-85/pic23.jpg item #7 thats the hydralic lifter is it not?),
leaving the vavle down wich in turn the piston come up and smacked it and bent it over slightly (making it into a hammer pertneer) and on the return cycle hit it again cracking the piston in TWO and sending the rest of the piston-rod and everything else threw the BOTTOM and LEFT SIDE of the engine block. Ill post those pics for all to see maybe by the end of the weekend time allowing.

that was the old engine... the new/used engine (120K miles on it) has the ticking too so i just want to get it fixed before i have anouther complete failure. and be back to square one of finding another engine and so forth.

any other tips that may help me in finding a solution to my problem would be awsome.

[ae1969]

Its not a bad idea to run a compression test on the engine if you would like to know how healthy it is.......

The lifters can only be tested by removing the camshaft housing and removing them....You can then push in the center.....if they push in easily then its shot. They are pretty firm as it is. I have a pic of a side cut out of one that makes it easy to see how they work.

You can pull the springs off the head with the head on the car but frankly on a 120 mile engine I just dont see the need to this.

I dont think the lifter caused your problem on your old seized engine...

Ticking is normal.........clanking is not..... and if you had a broken spring you would now.....

How fast was it revving when the valve let go?
Either a spring broke/broke a belt/skipped a couple of teeth on the timing belt/floated a valve.....

[adida(r 944)]

ill do the compresion test and let you know what i got there. as well as trying the liter ATF <-- auto tranny fluid?) and a oil change first before taking it apart. to see if it smooths out a bit. thanks for the help.

as for the other engine. i was street racing if that gives you any idea on reving. i dont think the Timing belt sliped or broke becuase it had little paint marks on belt and pully's and surprising enough they were right on top of each other when it finnaly stoped, or they could of sliped that much, hard to say. so i guess i just have to press on the old ones to see any of those are bad and double check the springs on that head for being broken. and post some pics to let yeah make your own theorys.

thanks again for the help

[ae1969]

hehehehe.....

I can see how you probably floated a valve..... and smoked it..... if you really had her pinned....or most likely dropped a gear and overrevved her.

The problem with these cars is the drive train does not like 7+ rpm....

Most of your power is made before that...... this is not an S2000.