Tapping sound when cold

[Back in Black]

If its the timing chain guides starting to go it could be it. Probably not but I figured I'd throw this out. If they are just starting to go the material on the guide is a *****ty plastic that once the friction gets them warm, it quiets down. It will get worse as they get worse.

Did you check the tentioner, lifters, your belt, egr? those are all free to check hence me bringing them up. How many miles are on your car?

OH!!! Don't use a purolator filter. Cheap paper on those too. Go with the Motorcraft FL820S. And if you have over 35k on the motor try going to 10W30 Moble synthetic

 

[Marlboro_Man]

I've got all the lifters out and they all seem to be pumped up good, I can't sqeeze any of them closed with my hands.

I took the tensioners off. Right now i have both of the tensioners off, they are the metal ones i guess cause i don't see any plastic on them. I can sqeeze them closed with my hand, it's not like super easy to but it's also not all that hard, I would compare it to sqeezing one of those old "hand excercizer" thingy's, or maybe just a little harder, MAYBE. Niether one seems harder then the other to sqeeze closed.


I also found that the back 4 lifter bores on the passenger side are holding oil in them, all the other lifter bores are dry.

The passenger side cam hold downs (ladders) are a lot darker then the drivers side, I mean they look dirtyer. Where as the drivers side ones look clean.

 

[Marlboro_Man]

How do i know if the guides are going bad? They appear to be ok, don't look messed up at all. They have a very slight groove where the chains ride and are discolerd in that area. They are yellow where the chains ride and orange every where else.

 

[ottos]

Damn if your that far into it, might as well change the tensioners and guides...

 

[BlownStangGT]

Ill def. keep an eye on this, my car does the same, but I have always run Mobil 1 5w30 and motorcraft filters for the past 35k miles. I havnt noticed any performance problems, and like you said, once its warmed up, it goes away.....who knows....just a good excuse for a rebuilt motor if it decides its had enough., but I have read about others having the problem as well

 

[Marlboro_Man]

New tensioners and lifters (lash adjusters) did NOT fix it.

Still tapping when cold....

Heres a video of it, it hasn't been started here for 8-10 hours so it was good and cold.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=585471690218742217&hl=en

I'll be posting a video of it shortly, of it after it warmed up and stopped tapping.

 

[Mustang5L5]

Interesting how it goes away with RPM rather than speeds up with it.


Was the pass side the side where you were missing the entire electrode to a plug?

 

[Marlboro_Man]

Interesting how it goes away with RPM rather than speeds up with it.


Was the pass side the side where you were missing the entire electrode to a plug?

Yes, the #4 cylender to be exact.

 

[Marlboro_Man]

This is it warmed up, This was taken 10-20 minutes after the first video. I just let it sit there and idle untill the fan came on and off, scanner showed 210*f for the coolant and guess what, the tap goes away! WEIRD!


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9160286990123720373&hl=en



Anyone have any ideas? I got a months insurance on it today, so i'm gonna try driving it tommorow hopefully and see how she does. Then friday I'm getting a compression tester and gonna check all the cylenders and see what kinda results I get.

 

[Marlboro_Man]

Well today I picked up an almost new O/R H-pipe for $50!

Got the o/r pipe on it and took it for a spin for the first time, It still taps. It drove pretty good, I mean it seemed to have plenty of power. It didn't throw any codes, which I thought that the O/r pipe would cause it to, but i guess thats a plus.

It would tap very slightly when i was driving it sometimes, but if the rpm's where over say 2500 it didn't tap. I listened closely to it idleing after the drive, and with my stethiscope i believe it is definatly coming from the passenger side #3 or #4 cylenders, but i really can't tell if it's in the head or in the block.

The brakes are really spongy, and there is a loud clank noise from the front sometimes when i stop it, but I'll make a new thread about that if i don't find any causes for it.

 

[Mustang5L5]

I think you need to pull that head....or get a scope and peer down the spark plugs holes and have a look around.

 

[hotdog71]

Hi All,

I seem to remember a TSB for a tapping sound coming from passanger side head caused by a sticking valve. This sounds like a sticking valve to me, just MO.

good luck

 

[Marlboro_Man]

I think you need to pull that head....or get a scope and peer down the spark plugs holes and have a look around.

I'm afraid of that too. Do you know where i can get some sort of scope to look down in there???

Hi All,

I seem to remember a TSB for a tapping sound coming from passanger side head caused by a sticking valve. This sounds like a sticking valve to me, just MO.

good luck

Yep I read that too, Seems like it fits my problem.


I was talking through PM with a guy on another board who has the same problem, or so it seems. He was suggesting it was a valve issue also.

"What if" I removed the cam followers from one cylender at a time and removed the spark plug and disconnected the injector, Put the VC back on and started it up, therefore the valves would not be moving on that cylender and if the noise isn't there anymore then i will have found my problem or if it is there atleast I ruled out the heads?????

Do you think i could do that, with no ill effects?

 

[Marlboro_Man]

"What if" I removed the cam followers from one cylender at a time and removed the spark plug and disconnected the injector, Put the VC back on and started it up, therefore the valves would not be moving on that cylender and if the noise isn't there anymore then i will have found my problem or if it is there atleast I ruled out the heads?????

Do you think i could do that, with no ill effects?

I'm about to try this but, If i remove the follower and leave the lifter in, Will the oil pressure push the lifter out and into the camshaft???

Or

Should i remove the lifter also?? But if i remove the lifter will all the oil pressure just run out there and starve the rest of the lifters and timing tensoiners ???


Should i not try this?

 

[hotdog71]

Hi,

If you try that, I would take out the lifter altogether just be be safe. I am not a guru on these cars but I have had in the passed a follwer snap on a GM Vaxhall cavalier in the UK when I lived there and the lifter blew itself out

 

[Str8Kr4zy]

New tensioners and lifters (lash adjusters) did NOT fix it.

Still tapping when cold....

Heres a video of it, it hasn't been started here for 8-10 hours so it was good and cold.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=585471690218742217&hl=en

I have a similar problem, appears to sound the same, only difference is my car only does it though when being moving between 1400-2000 RPM. I sometimes hear it when the car is started.

http://s53.photobucket.com/albums/g48/monkchiefa/?action=view&current=MVI_2760.flv

 

[04GTMustang]

does anyone think it could be piston slap cause it goes away when warm. try using the search button and look up "death rattle"