My Winter Upgrades

[Halon]

Well I decided to park the Talon after lunch today and drive the Saab back to work. On the way to lunch, I heard a ticking sound. The car has always ticked slightly upon warm-up, even before the rebuild happened. I've always considered it to be cold start piston slap due to the forged pistons and the material Mahle uses. This ticking today did get quieter after the engine warmed up, but didn't go away fully. I have about 250 miles on the motor so far since the rebuild.

I've never heard what rod knock sounds like, but I figured to be safe I'll just shut her down and start doing some investigating. Tonight I plan on pulling the valve cover to see if a rocker has fallen off. Also I'd like to check to see if the lifters are still good, but I guess I don't exactly know how to tell if one is bad (unless it has real obvious physical damage). Any advice? Anyone local who is more of an expert in this area, willing to stop by and listen to the ticking and give me their .02 cents?

One other thing I did notice in my quick 10 minutes of lunch time troubleshooting, is that there really isn't much tick when you free rev, or just cruise down the highway. But when you get on it, that's when you can begin to hear the ticking...

Worst case I suppose would be rod knock/spun bearing. I really have never heard a car with rod knock, so I have no clue. I guess I'm just preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best, all a guy can do eh..

[A//// Guy]

Im guessing its just lifter tick? Try and narrow down where the ticking is coming from if you can.

Man that would suck if it was something worse.. if it is, and I were you, dsms would be done... lol

Good luck!

[Speedfreak]

I'll be at work/the shop, but if you don't get any takers let me know, I'll swing over to help diagnose.

[Halon]

I actually had a dream last night that I traded the Talon in for a C5... hmmm....

I highly doubt that'll happen though

I will spend time tonight trying to narrow things down as good as I can.

If no one else steps up, maybe I'll just stop by your shop Momin. I love your new location

[4g63tcrazy]

Even though you haven't heard rod knock, you will know once you hear it. It's more of a knock knock knock on a door than a tick.

[Halon]

I'm also considering picking up some Seafoam or MCCC to clean up the combustion chamber. The head I put on had fairly dirty valves on them. Lots of shit cooked on them. So that may also be a cause. Hopefully some MCCC can wipe out a lot of that build up.

[Super Bleeder!!]

My timing belt makes some slap noises at certain rpms.

[asshanson]

You used the valves that head had on it already? I thought you had it all rebuilt with the stuff from your 1g head.

Anyway, I always had a bunch of lifter tick with that head, so maybe that's the issue. Especially with Mobil1 10w-30.

[Halon]

So how does one tell if a lifter is bad? Will it just push/plunge in and out easily without having to do poke it with a pin or something?

[Halon]

It was rebuilt using the stuff from the old head, like the Crower Springs/retainers, and new stem seals. The old head was stock valves, never had upgraded valves in the car. 4 of my valves from the old head were destroyed. So they just used the same valves when they redid this head. I figured they would have at least cleaned them a bit, but they didn't. I regret it now, hindsight is a bitch like that. I figured some E85 would help clean the crap outta them. I just called Dodge in Blaine, and they have some MCCC so I'll pick up a bottle of that, and suck it in through the PCV after work, and hope that it can clean those things up. I guess I don't really have a way to tell if they really do get cleaned or not.

But really at this point, what I really want to know if it is rod related or not. Because if that's the case, I need to start figuring out what to do ASAP as spring is damn near here.

[Shane@DBPerformance]

Rod knock will usually make a somewhat hollow almost wooden sounding knocking noise on decel, like it you rev it up quick and then it decel back down on it's own. You can also then unplug each injector 1 at a time and see if the noise changes on any specific cylinder. The rod knock noise should get quieter on the cylinder with the spun bearing with no combustion happening/less load on it.

[Halon]

I'll try that. Maybe just turn off each injector 1 at a time via Link.

From what I've noticed thus far, the ticking (not knocking on a door sounding, not hollow sounding, it's more lifter tick like) is apparent when I put a load on the engine while accelerating. Free revving, and deceling (meaning letting go of the gas pedal, but remaining in gear) I didn't hear the tick.

[4g63tcrazy]

You sure you're not hearing the injectors? Didn't you upgrade while you did all this, or no? Maybe you have some loud ass injectors.

[Halon]

Same injectors (blue top PTE 1600's) that I've been running for a couple years now. I didn't really do any upgrades while the car was down. The only things that have really changed recently was switching over to an Evo8 MAS, and putting in a new fuel filter and new fuel feed line. But the car has been running fine with them.

[Kevin 1G Drummer]

Sounds to me like it's lifter tick. Do you know if it has the stock lifters, or the revised 3mm ones in it? When I put my cams in I used the 3mm lifters, and I haven't had a problem with lifter tick since.

They're pretty easy to install, the only shitty thing is, that you have to pull the cams to do it. It's not a big deal though if you have the timing belt tool that takes the tension off the belt so you don't have to take the timing belt off.

[Halon]

I do have the revised lifters.

I took the VC off and everything looked fine. I tried to wiggle each rocker and they are all nice and stuck in place. I tried pushing down on lifters and they were all stiff, couldn't push any down.

Stopped by Dodge and picked up 1 can of MCCC. Sprayed the whole can through the PCV line. Smoked out the whole neighborhood The car has been idling for quite awhile now. I'm going to take it around the block to see if the sound has gotten better.

Brownman did stop by, and heard the car idle, and free rev. Sounded like he didn't think anything was abnormal.

[Speedfreak]

He was just here, no worries, just a little normal valvetrain noise(maybe a lifter starting to die).

[turbotalon1g]

I was just about to say the same thing, i was just there.
Mo you back at the shop finally? i gave up stopping by to see you.

[Halon]

Yeah, thanks for stopping by Brownman. We'll see ya Friday maybe.

And another big thanks to Momin and Andy at Elite, for taking the time to look at it quickly.

Apparently just some valvetrain noise, thank god. Also another thought was that currently I'm just running around on some cheap 10W-30 oil for break-in. Hopefully when I change over to 15-40 some of that noise will dissipate.

So for now, I think I'm just going to stick with the DSM motto, and "Let er Buck". I have an appointment at DB for a tune, so I suppose that'll be the true test

[Speedfreak]

Originally Posted by turbotalon1g

I was just about to say the same thing, i was just there.
Mo you back at the shop finally? i gave up stopping by to see you.

Yup, finally back on my feet(kinda).

Originally Posted by Halon

Yeah, thanks for stopping by Brownman. We'll see ya Friday maybe.

And another big thanks to Momin and Andy at Elite, for taking the time to look at it quickly.

Apparently just some valvetrain noise, thank god. Also another thought was that currently I'm just running around on some cheap 10W-30 oil for break-in. Hopefully when I change over to 15-40 some of that noise will dissipate.

So for now, I think I'm just going to stick with the DSM motto, and "Let er Buck". I have an appointment at DB for a tune, so I suppose that'll be the true test

Get her tuned and enjoy it!(just make sure to mention to Shane to keep an eye on your coolant temps).