Ok I just rebuilt my motor and have posted about this already but I've done some more diagnosing.Heres the story: I completly rebuilt the bottom end except for the rods using stock parts (no plans for pushing this thing hard)I just had the head checked out a about 3 months prior because I thought that it was the problem when my rings landings cracked , so I just pulled it and slapped it back on.Well anyways I got done w/ the rebuild cranked it up it ran like glass perfect idle everything perfect and I let it warm up a coulpe times to check fluids and drove it home. On the way home it stalled and I let out the clutch and it started back up.I get to my house and hear a slight tick I figure just an exhaust leak no biggie, well in the morning it tapps like crazy but I let it idle and it quiets down some.I was told that its just lifters and drive it and it will go away so I put like 70 miles on it and it gets louder and I start loosing power?SO I take it back to the shop pull the valve cover on it and use a stethascope and figured that its the lifters so I order some and replace all of the intake side cause thats were a majority of the noise is coming from I also found that the oil was dripping down from the top of the motor (not the valve cover btw)and onto my exhaust,I also found later that the seal in the turbo had like just blown and oil was draining all in my exhaust causing me to loose oil preasure( I decided to hook up a gauge after that) so we pulled the turbo and put the stock manifold back on still no power and still noise well we switched all of the rockers and new lifters to the exhaust side and still I got the same noise coming from the intake and it seems strongest on the # 2 lifters.I've done a compression check and got 175 all the way across cold.I've pulled the pan to see if it was a rod bearing and theres no play and no metal shavings and it plasti gauged fine.My oil preasure starts at like 50 until it warms up and drops to like 23-35 it comes back up when I rev it is that normal to be that low on idle?Does any body got any ideas as what this could be or how else to check this out I'm lost and so is all of the mechanics that have looked and listen to this thing.As far as diving it goes I dont have an intake on it right now cause Im not driving it but up and down the road a mile or so to test it but I take it up to like 5k and theres no power what so ever It feels like it wants to go for a second then stops and when the ac is on its like diving a geo metro We thought it was the timing belt skiped a tooth but we checked it and it was on.But it did have power before and was kidda skippy through 2-3k but now theres like only 70 hp feels like and no powerband whatsoever.Any Ideas would help alot! Thanks

I would start by pulling the plugs and checking for any damage. Mabye a nut or bolt managed to make it's way into the intake and is bouncing off the piston. Look in the spark plug hole at the piston to see it there is any damage on the top of the piston.

just a thought. is your egr either fully connected or completely blocked off? is it possibly leaking there? are you throwing any codes?
is it too loud to be an injector tick? are you getting bubbles and smoke coming up through your coolant? oil in your coolant? coolant in your oil? are your spark plugs fully seated in the head?

sorry to ask you what may seem like stupid questions, but you have already checked the obvious things. I was shocked to hear your compression was up to par.

I will keep thinking on this.

It sounds like a rod bearing going out but I just checked it there fine.And my egr is hooked up its not throwing any codes cept when I got oil down my sparkplug holes it threw a 43 I think cyl misfire. Other than that were pretty sure its somewere in the head.ether cam or valve guide thats the only thing left.How would you check those things?

Did you pump up the lifters manually on install? Submerge them in oil and pump them up? Keeping them upright coming out of the oil and into the motor.

Valve stem seals: You can see through intake and exhaust ports, if any of the valve stems are wet with oil = bad valve stem seals.
Valve guides... maybe pull the head re-attach the cams shafts and turn the cams pushing sets of valves down and check for play? (Not even sure if this would work... just a thought). A Mechanic/machine shop would be able to check them more precicely.

What about wrist pin slap? If you rule out the head may have to start looking lower.



15.9 @ 86.7mph
97 Eclipse RS

Injen CAI, 55mm TB, P&P Intake, Crower Stage 2 Cams, Hooker Header, GS-T Muffler, AFX UDP, Crane Ign Amp, S-AFC

I am having the EXACT same problem, with the exception of power loss. My car still feels strong, but I have a ticking that seems to be coming from the head. It's pretty loud when I first start the engine, but I've always had piston slap from the JE's. But when the engine is warm, I still have a ticking noise that increases with rpms. But if I rev it above 3000rpms, it goes away. This makes me think it's NOT a bearing because it would only get louder as rpms increased, right??

I also figured it was just my lifters, so I replaced them, but it didn't help. I was planning on pulling the valve cover again and checking my rockers for flat spots on the roller, and checking the cams for a worn lobe. But if that's not it, I'm stumped. I had new valve guides and seals installed and a 3 angle valve job done 9000 miles ago when the engine was rebuilt.

Oh yeah, I also have an oil leak on the back side of the block. I'm kinda guessing it might be spraying from the oil sender unit that might have come loose, but I can't tell for sure. I'm gonna wipe the oil off everything, wrap a rag around my oil sender unit and tape it on, then drive around for a little bit. Then jack it back up and take a look. If only the rag is oily, I found my leak. :) Then I just gotta get a wrench on that T fitting and sender unit.

did you check your timing marks, you may be whacking a valve on the piston top.
lates
james

That might have been Psychodragon's problem, but he said he checked his timing and it was good. My car doesn't have any power loss. If I had bent a valve, it would have bent immediately and stopped ticking by now. Also, I would have a crappy idle and low/no compression in one cylinder. My car still runs fine and feels strong.

Are you sure, it's not just your injectors ticking away?



15.9 @ 86.7mph
97 Eclipse RS

Injen CAI, 55mm TB, P&P Intake, Crower Stage 2 Cams, Hooker Header, GS-T Muffler, AFX UDP, Crane Ign Amp, S-AFC

It's much too loud to be injectors, and it sounds like it's coming from the passenger side of the head near the timing belt area. I checked to make sure it wasn't the timing belt rubbing on the cover too. I don't know what else to check. :(

I found my powerloss problem my mechanics put my cam angle sensor in upside down I fixed and I got some power back(remind me later to shot my mechanic asistance!)Now I also went back from 20-50 motor oil to 10w30 and the tick/tap is a little less. could the cam lobes be warn down on the intake side?

Well if you have a damaged or extremely weakened valve spring, you could be getting valve float. What weight oil do you use? The reason I ask is because if you use a more viscous oil, you will generally get lifter tick. If you arent using this already, I would try changing the oil to 5w30 and see what happens. This fixed the lifter tick noise coming from my bother's 4g63, but it still does it until the motor gets warmed up. Otherwise, I would check the oil galley that supplies the lifters in that area and make sure that there isnt a little piece of silicon in there or something. It sounds like you have a lifter that isnt seeing enough oil pressure to get pumped up properly.

I'm having this problem too! Did you guys figure anything out? I still have power, but the car sounds like a diesel when i first start it in the morning. I let it idle for about 15 min and it goes way. But as i drive I can still hear it a little bit. Once i get over 3k rpm's it goes away. It goes away at the same rev point every time. hrmmmmm any ideas?!

>I'm having this problem too! Did you guys figure anything
>out? I still have power, but the car sounds like a diesel when
>i first start it in the morning. I let it idle for about 15
>min and it goes way. But as i drive I can still hear it a
>little bit. Once i get over 3k rpm's it goes away. It goes
>away at the same rev point every time. hrmmmmm any ideas?!


That's just piston slap. JE's are noisy. Live with it.

I have the same problem too! I think mine might be either lifter tap or maye the bearings in my water pump were stripped? My mechanic overtightened the tensioner pulley , snapping the alt/ ps belt off later. After we reinstalled them I noticed that ticking noise at idle. Flushed the radiator and refilled it with antifreeze, and the ticking went away at idle, but comes on sometimes when I go into 2nd. So im not sure if its a rod bearing, I heard thats worse and the car wont drive right. I first thought maybe its the clutch, cause when I depress it going into 2nd, thats when I hear it. The oil was full, but watery, and my knock count was kinda high before inspection (i ended up doing an illegal one :o ) but prior to all that, I replaced the valve cover gasket seal and rings with new plugs n wires because I was misfiring and there was oil in my spark plugs.

have anyone of you guys done any recent head work? when you installed the head and did timming was it done correctly.. (its very easy to bent the intake valves installing the head and adjusting timming......)