my engine seems to be more clattery than I ever remember it

when cold, it is fine. when I have been driving, its clattery, but not too bad.
the worst time is when I have driven somewhere, stopped for a bit and then restarted the car to drive off. anywhere from 2-3 minutes of stoppage to an hour or so and it will sound pretty ropey for a few minutes.

on idle its not really noticeable, its as you bring the RPM up to drive off. you can only hear it if you have the window open as the exhaust is pretty loud!

I usually use 15/40 oil, but decided to try some 10/40. I have also recently fitted a 866 cam, this was in decent condition and clearances are 0.4 intake and 0.5 exhaust.
I don't appear to have any oil pressure issues, but I haven't checked the oil pressure. the light goes out quickly on start-up and has never flickered on round corners or anything.

shall I drain and refill with 15/40? any other ideas?

Clattery or misfiring?

D

clattery. the engine runs silky smooth. its the valvetrain making the noise.

ive decided to drain the oil out and stick 15w-40 oil and a new filter on to see if that solves it. will go get the bits tomorrow and hope it improves things. oil has done less than 1000 miles, but never mind

Can you let me know how it goes?

I have the same noise on mine when warmed up.

Thanks

changing the oil and filter made no difference. must just be worn out!

dac69er said:

changing the oil and filter made no difference. must just be worn out!

Click to expand...

What a shame. Thanks for letting me know.

Clattery means there's some slop in the valvegear. You ought to check it since it means the valves are probably getting stressed and sooner or later you might drop one into the motore. That won't end well.

When the engine is warm the oil becomes thinner so you'll hear noise more. Certainly 10W40 ought to be okay though.. I think it's the recommended oil for Sei'... Using 15W40 or a loud exhaust to "mask" the noise is also not going to end well.

If you fitted a new camshaft, check that the valve clearances really are factory spec. 0.4/0.5 sounds a bit loose to me .. but I don't know what the OE clearance is.

Even if the clearance is good.. if the tappets are hydraulic, those might be sticking.

Also check that the cam bearing caps are torqued correctly.


Ralf S.

I didn't use 15w-40 to mask the clattering, it's the recommended weight oil, which is why I thought I would change back to it. The exhaust is just loud, I didn't fit it to mask the noise of the engine! Only things I had changed was the oil and the camshaft. it didn't clatter beforehand that I had noticed, but beforehand was the winter, so the oil was generally colder for longer anyway.

I was using the above mentioned valve clearances on the standard cam. I asked on here what clearances I should use on the new one and was told the same is fine?

The cam followers are shim and bucket, not hydraulic. The cam caps are fine. I didn't torque them, but I know what I am doing, they are fine.

It may have always been a bit clattery, I have just never noticed as once it has run for a few mins it sounds fine.

I have redone the clearances to the 1.2 punto spec and the issue has now gone. All seems good now ��