So I wrapped up my valve adjustment I started last week over the 4th of July weekend. Got it all back together with new plugs, filters, etc. All of my exhaust valves were out of spec, the intake side only cylinders 2 & 4 needed to be adjusted.

However the ticking sound from the valvetrain is not gone, this leads me to beleive that the chain tensioner is going out the window. The sound is coming from the front of the valvetrain but I was stupid enough to not even check the chain when I had the cover off doing the valve adjustment.

From my searches, the failing tensioner is not an uncommon thing and its symptoms match up with my current situation. I just don't want to jump to conclusions and spend money that does not need to be spent so I am open to other ideas I may not have considered.

Also would a bad tensioner cause power loss or hesitation during acceleration? reason I ask is that the motor is acting up like it did when my MAP sensor needed to be whacked. I already attempted a "whack" again, but nothing changed. Could the tensioner be the culprit on this occasion??

Symptoms:
- Hesitation during the 6-9k band, intermittent hiccups, feels like it is very underpowered and seems as there is no VTEC engagement point.
- Ticking coming from the front of the valve cover/engine, RPM based, more noticeable in the lower RPM band (1-3k). Even more noticeable when in gear decelerating. Still noticeable in neutral at a stop.
- Also noticed my low oil light comes on a intermittent times. I keep checking my oil and it is not low, I even topped it off.

Open to any suggestions. Thanks guys/gals!

 

Interested to see what happens with this. I know all the crap you did to "fix" the issue... sorry it hasn't worked out yet.

 

ok,.....this may have nothing to do with your problem, but mine was very similar and very costly. i had started to notice alot of valve chatter over a short period of time and was just going to have a valve adjustment done. about 1week later im driving home and my oil light comes on, i had just changed the oil that morning? what the hell? so i pulled over and put alittle oil in it, and began again on my way home. the light came on again, but this time my engine sounded like a 1.8LS motor....(LS's dont have v-tec and dont rev high at all).....anyways, long story short, i had spun a journal bearing in my crankshaft.....thuse i lost oil pressure, mainly at higher rpm, a shit load of valve chatter.......$3800 later i had a brand new block shipped from honda.

 

Did you ever get it ported and polished?

 

The cam chain tensioner noise is most often described as sounding like playing cards flapping in bicycle spokes. This was the only symptom I had. There was no loss of power or oil light.

Josh, note that the oil light is not a level indicator, so topping off the engine is not the solution. It is a pressure indicator. You're oil level has to be incredibly low to lose pressure.

Also, the CCT noise is much louder during a warm start -- an engine that has already been brought to operating temperature from a previous start.

The good news is that it's a piece of cake to swap, the bad news is that the little bugger costs a good amount of coin.

I'm not so sure this would be the right direction to head in your diagnostics. Everything else that you mention points else where, but I'm afraid I couldn't say where.

 

Do note that the F20C has a VERY noisy valvetrain even when new.

 

We should all meet up to listen to each other's noises....cause mine has similar sound on cold start up even though I changed tct out...

 

Mine was noisy from Day 1.

 

Thanks but it's doubtful. I spun bearings in my old car twice so I deff know what that is like. This sounds nothing like it. Thanks for the thought though.



It's a stock motor.

Thanks Aaron. Thats actually what it sounds like (cards in spokes). It's too fast to count the ticks at the lower RPM vs valve tick which you can usually count.

As far as the oil light, it usually comes on during hard turns for a second or less. Just a quick flash.

Back to the noise, it is only apparent on a warm engine. Cold starts I don't notice it much. Then again during the summer it does not take our car long to warm up.

Thanks, I'm aware of this although this is NOT normal. Just for reference my motor has just over 70k now and it has NEVER sounded like this.

I think the power loss might just be a coincidence between my MAP sensor going up the same time as my tensioner.

But thanks for the tips so far guys, keep them coming!

 

I agree with Aaron... Sounds like you need to swap out the TCT.

As he said, it is really easy. The hardest part is getting the OEM intake box out of the way. After that... SUPER simple. You will find everything you will ever need to know about swapping a TCT here.