05TurboS2k

Start there but honestly, I wouldn't run this motor more than I had to for diagnosing purposes. If it's the bottom end the longer you run it the better the chance the rod/journals will be so damaged that the motor will need to be completely replaced.

If you catch a failure very early, sometimes you can just drop the pan and replace things from the bottom, if you're lucky that is.

neeman77

It was brought up because the bolt itself has a washer that goes against the cam gear. If it is not held against the gear when the allen is fully installed it will bind and the allen will not go in all the way. It will them produce a similar sound. Ask me how I know, lol. When I look at your video your bolt looks ok but I thought I would ask since I couldnt tell until I took the valve cover off.

05TurboS2k

^ Good call. When installing I caught this error LUCKILY before mine had the same issue but I think I know what you mean, it ends up not seating fully.

chris2k03

Update. So I got my hands on an OEM TCT. Swapped it in and the noise remains. I then took the valve cover off, re-checked all my clearances and pretty much inspected everything that can be seen with the VC off. Everything looked fine from that end, so I guess I'll have to drop the pan and take a look.

bac7213

even if you drop the pan you cant be certain until you take off the head and take a look at the cylinder walls and if thats ok....then your gonna have to take rods off the crank

05TurboS2k

Well, dropping the pan can give some damn good info.

Actually!!!! Before you do that, drain the oil and sift it with a paper filter or whatever you have and look for BRASS colored metal! That'll be a dead give away.

Also, can do the same with the oil filter, grab a hack saw and cut it open. If you see brass you know you're f@CKED.

If it looks fine then drop the pan and start looking for some movement/play in components, specifically rods, you can use a screw driver to pry a little if need be. You can see down in the cylinder walls if you have a scope cam, hell even dropping a small mirror with a light will give you a good idea. of how things look above the pistons. Crank the motor over with a 19mm wrench clockwise on the crank pulley.

Let us know what you find.

bac7213

^^^ yea that brass metal means engine build lol

chris2k03

Update. Pan was pulled and there was some very light dusting of metallic/brass material at the bottom of the pan - no chunks of metal or anything like that. No spun rod bearings. Timing chain cover was taken off as well - everything looked good there. Oil pump looked good as well. Head is coming off today to take out the pistons. You might be right 05Turbo about it being a piston skirt. We'll see.

Thunder-rush

Well if you got to see brass colored dust in the oil then some bearing had problems. Anyways before doing anything else you have to find what might have caused it. If you ran the car too rich with the same oil for a considerable amount of time it might be possible that the oil got diluted in gas and thinned. That can cause low oil pressure and all sort of related problems. Put new oil try weight 0-40 or 10-40 and measure oil press and see if the values are normal.