my car has run great for the past 2 1/2 years until earlier this year in the spring. since then, it still runs alright, but its just not quite as much of a fine tuned machine as it used to be and its starting to concern me...

Here are all the things my car is doing:
-knocking: it gets somewhat quieter when the car warms up, but doesnt go away completely. it gets a little better some days, but its definetly getting worse over time. its not bad enough to the point where i wont drive my car anymore though...
the motor was rebuilt when i first got the car, but its given me over 30,000 miles without any problems so i dont know if i can attribute it to the rebuild...

-Engine has a "opposite surge" while at consistent throttle: only while in gear during acceleration or while im "engine braking". feels like i lose some powerand then it comes back. and almost feels like a miss. im thinking that a miss is a big part of my problem but i dont know what might be causing it...

-a pretty loud whining noise coming from the cam gears/ top of timing cover: a while ago the idler bearings went bad, so i replaced them, converted to a mechanical tensioner, replaced the water pump, and changed the belt. ive got a hogh volume oil pumpe in there too. Long story short, everything on the timing belt side is new and its still whining. the timing belt tension feels fine and the mechanical tensioner is tensioned properly too. could it be a bad cam bearing?

-High idle while coasting in neutral until the car stops completely: while the engine is warming up and im driving up the street, my idle stays around 2300 rpm after i take my car out of gear and coast to the stop sign in neutral. it usually goes down around 1500 rpm as the car slows down, but it doesnt go to where it should be (800) until i come to a full and complete stop for atleast 2 or 3 seconds. the rpms dont change depending on the clutch is engaged or not. there have also been one or two times where my idle began fluctuating and getting erratic as i coasted to a stoplight, but went back down to normal after i stopped for a second (it contnued til the car warmed up). for all of this, after the engine warms up completely, the revs drops down to 800rpms when i take it out of gear. this is by far the stangest issue, if anyone has any idea what this is i would really apreciate some input.

-a high pitched noise that starts around 3000 rpms, only happens when im accelerating really hard at WOT. this ones really strange because it sounds almost exactly like squealing brakes.

-sputtering when accelerating from low rpms. worse than it should be. the plug wires arent very old, but the coil may be. i put in some new plugs and correctly gapped them a couple days ago and the sputtering got a lot better, but still sounds kind of harsh

-engine doesnt start as easily as it used to

-gas mileage isnt as good as it used to be

-car runs a couple of degrees warmer than it used to

-i pulled my new plugs after they had been in there for about a week and one of them was white. it matches the "too hot" plug in the haynes manual, but that doesnt tell me what the problem might be... i also have to use a sleeve for this plug because the hole had been stripped out a long time ago and tapped. i have a feeling this cylinder may be where my problem is.

i dont know if its ignition or fuel or predetonation or what. one theory i have is that my ecu is picking up the knock and retarding the ignition timing but i dont think the knock is bad enough..
it may sound like i just need a new car, but its not all bad. it works just fine, but everything feels like its off and its really really bothering me. if anyone has had any similar problems in any sort of combination and fixed them i would really appreciate the insight. even if you have a theory, id appreciate the help

That’s a hell of a screen name you have there, lol

Where do we start...

Is your ecu spitting out any codes (such as knock, lean, ect)? How often do you check your oil level? Maybe you had a leak and was unaware causing starvation to the bearings. Are you sure it’s your timing belt area and not your ps/ac belt making the noise? If you replaced everything and made sure you lubed the bearings up and properly adjusted the tension then you can rule out your cam bearings going bad. Did you check your spark plug wires? Are they corroded? Did you see spark coming from all four plugs while the engine was in operation? Did you check the ohms on your coil pack? Sounds like your running lean. If you haven’t changed your fuel filer it may be smart to do that. You could also check your injectors to make sure there opining properly and clean them. As for the spuddering across the rpm range you might want to look into changing your map sensor and test the ohms on the IAT and the CTS. As for the ticking it could be either a spun bearing(witch im guessing) or a lifter tick, its hard to tell without actually hearing it because they both do the same depending on how bad off they are.

Hope that helped some....

*EDIT*: There are no cam bearings, thanks for the correction Dino. Been a long night...

well, there arent any CEL's going on. i always check my oil religiously, however there were two instances when my engine was starved for oil (but not for very long): once after i put the new oil pump on and the freak incedent when my oil pressure sensor cracked and started squirting oil out. the knock could have easily been caused by these events, but it didnt really show up for about two months.

the whirring noise is most definetly coming fom inside the timing cover. the cam bearings were most likely replaced by the guy i bought the car from. i replaced the idler pulleys as an assembly, and im fairly sure those are sealed. Ive heard of people having this problem when converting to mechanical tensioning, but it was only one or two instances. at some point soon im going to have to check my tensioner and see if the spring tang is still lined up.

the wires arent incredibly old, but im probably going to try changing them. they arent corroded or cracking or anything like that. i havent checked the spark on each cylinder while the cars running but i plan on doing that pretty soon. ive tested the secondry resistance on my coilpack and gotten 14 ohms for both coils.

im probably gonna look into changing the map sensor and the crank position sensor pretty soon. what are the IAT and CTS? ive never heard of those before...

i dont think that the knock is bad enough to be a spun bearing, but im pretty sure ive got some extra clearance in my rod bearing though.

thanks for the suggestions

Originally posted by EvilTalon666
the cam bearings were most likely replaced by the guy i bought the car from.

There are no cam bearings. The journals are machined directly into the head.

Originally posted by EvilTalon666
what are the IAT and CTS?

Intake Air Temp and Coolant Temp Sensor.


My suggestion would be to invest in a mechanic's stethoscope and pinpoint the exact location the noise is coming from. Regardless of what your ears are telling you, it may neither be in the head nor on the timing side at all.

well thats good to know about the cam bearings... theres a stethoscope somewhere in my stepdads shop but im gonna have to spend atleast a half an hour looking for it under all the crap in there. im gonna give those sensors a test and see if theyre aright too.

Originally posted by EvilTalon666
For anyone who was wondering, yes my user name is a joke.

Heh. It's cool in my book, dude.

im honestly considering changing it to POS_talon

Starving your engine of oil doesn't have to take long to damage internals. It took my engine about eh...10 minutes of starvation to jack it up. I would get a stethoscope as mentioned above and pinpoint. Probe around the bottom of your block (bottom 4" or so) and if that is your problem, it's a bearing. Also probe around all other areas as well. Sound travels through metal VERY well, so for instance...a noise at the top audible without aid could actually be a problem on anything, anywhere that is attached to your block. To put it in perspective for you...my water pump failure was audible unaided around the valve cover, the only way i figured it out was had a shop run a scope on it. Ordered new part and sure enough the mechanism was seized up when i pulled it off. Could you maybe get an audio/video clip? We may/may not be able to help more than just throwing suggestions out there. We're merely giving you starting points.

well, i hadnt been hable to check out my car until this wekend because i have to drive it to class and work everyday. HOWEVER, over the week the knocking has started getting a lot quieter. on top of that, the strange vibrations, terrible sputtering, and what felt like a misfire to me- have all gotten better as the knock got better. even moreso, my gas mileage has been restored back to the way it was when i bought the car. and all i did was change the plugs... go figure.

ive got a decent theory as to what the knock was though, but it takes a little explaining. the knock seemed to be coming from near the top of one of the middle cylinders/in the combustion chamber. it was so quick that must have been the face of the piston been kissing the valves just a little bit. whenever i changed the spark plugs, i remembered i had meant to change one of them a long time ago but hadnt. back when i was 16 and didnt know what the hell i was doing, i changed my plugs and found out that someone had stripped out the spark plug hole on the #2 cylinder and that there was a plug with a much wider area w/ the threads than all the others. back then i thought it was a special plug that had been ordered, this time i knew it simply had a sleeve on it. i was also reinded of my previous inexperience whenever i checked the gap and all the champions i put in were at .050 (should be .039) and then the icing on the cake: the old plug with the sleeve that had about 30000 miles on it was at .070. wow., i wish i had a time machine so i could go back 3 years and smack myself in the back of the head. well theres my misfire.

the knock didnt immediately go away when i put the new plugs in, but as i mentioned previously the vibration, sputtering and power loss got considerably better, but everything was still kindof there. well since ive put the plugs in and driven it, all the symptoms have gotten a little bit better everyday. heres where my theory comes in: because the plug that i had in cylinder 2 was at .070 and had been for over 30000 miles, carbon had built up in the cylinder over time. im guessing the carbon had gotten so bad that the piston began to touch the valves just a little bit, causing the knock. whenever i put the plugs in and the cylinder started firing correctly, it cleared up some of the carbon which made the knock better, and the pistons became a little more balanced getting rid of the vibration.

sorry for the heavy reading, but id be interested in hearing anyones theorys as to how it actually got better. but considering the knock has gotten better as well as the other things, id be willing to bet that the spun bearing is out of the picture- along with a rebuild, and that makes me so goddamn happy i cant express it in words.

that being said, i still have the timing belt whine and the high pitched noise that sounds like brakes whenever i accerate hard (it sounds like its coming from my drivers side whenever im driving, but i cant hear it vey well whenever i sit in my driveway and rev it). the timing belt whine doesnt really concern me too much because i know i can take the cover off and check everything with a stethoscope, but the high pitched noise is what really concerns me. ive had my boss look at the car (hes worked on everything, these cars to ferraris to formula-v cars) and he couldnt figure out what it could be.