hi guys:
here is my situation:
haven't started the car for about 3 weeks, last time I drove it everything was top notch.
when I started this morning, it has the weird noise coming from engine, almost like axle or bearing grinding. I pulled the valve cover and inspected everything, retainers are good. primary lobe on cyl#1, intake side seems a little worn out. If you flip the valve cover, you can see marks of oil being sprayed around the spark plug hole, on mine, I can't see the oil spray marks on cyl #1, intake side.
the noise seems to be changing with engine rpm.
I also did the screw driver on metal trick, to find out if it's the pulleys or it's coming from inside of the valve cover, it doesn't seem like it's from any of the pulleys or from inside of the valve cover, as far as I can tell, all cyl, intake or exhaust sides, have identical noise. I have a oil pressure gauge reading pressure from the oil filter, as far as the gauge can tell, oil pressure is not low. engine oil level is not low either. The car has less than 40k miles. It is running on after market cams, pistons and ems. cams are less than 5k miles old, pistons are less than 2k miles. Never used low octane gas, 93 and up only, and only used mobile 1 or speed master full synthetic.
link to the video clip:
http://rapidshare.com/files/36135355...nosie.3gp.html
sorry no youtube since youtube is banned here.
I can't just go to the dealership, since I am using the car in China, and honda never officially sold the car here, and most dealers don't know how to fix the s2ks, even if they do they'll rip me off, since s2ks are so rare here and go for a hefty premium. I'd like to get some inputs from the knowledged minds on this board.
thanks in advance

 

update:
started the engine again earlier, tried to pin point the noise.
there seems to be clapping sound from the engine, it's barely audible and mostly covered by the grinding noise. I could swear it sounds like mis adjusted valves. as far as the grinding noise goes, it seems frequent when the engine is warm, and I am decently sure it's from the head, and I am inclined to think it's from intake cam over cylinder 1
Can someone tell me how are the cams lubricated? I have a electronic copy of service manual, in the illustration it didn't say any nozzles or lines. I found 2 holes besides spark plug wells on cyl # 2 and 3, but they seem to be sealed by sth.

 

bump

 

i would be curious about your cams. for them only having 5k miles, they should have almost no signs of wear on them at all. what cams are they?

another thing that i would try is an oil change. if its been sitting for a while the oil may be starting to go bad, though that doesn't seem likely, cause its only been a few months right?

and if you think that its you valves out of adjustment have your dealership adjust them. last i checked it was less than $150.

sorry i don't have any real ideas, and it sounds like you have a pretty good grasp of what you are doing, so your guess would be as good as mine.

the worn cam does bother me though. when i did a valve cover gasket on my 94 lude about a year ago i was suprised to see that all the cams were near perfect looking anf they have seen more than 300k miles. so in your case it could be a substandard cam that got scored from the initial dry start after siting.

for future referance, its a good idea to disable spark and chrank it a few times to lube the engine after it has sat for a while.

 

oil is less than 3 months old, less than 2k kms, so less than 1.3-1.4 k miles
will definitely do the spark plug-less crank next time.
I was told just now by the shop I bought my pistons from, toda cams DO WEAR OUT SOONER and I was like ohhh crap.
back to the cam lubrication question, how is the oil jetted up to the cam?

 

pix of cam lob, these are toda A2s:

the lobe on the right seems to have some wear on it, but it feels smooth.
another picture:

pulled the spark plugs, I am not sure if it shows the engine is running too rich or burning oil:

did a compression test, 220 across all 4 cylinders, no CEL. but the car definately does not sound right.
any inputs?

 

This?

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=207528

 

wow that is gonna suck.
my cams are nowhere near as bad, it's not gouged to hell, not yet at least.
where exactly are those oil pick up/return holes on the head?
and if I do see a layer of oil sitting on the cam rollers, is it safe to assume no lubrication problem?

 

Check your valve clearances, especially the one with the worn out lobe.

 

valve clearance is fine, all 16 valves.
thourght it was the pulley, and removed the belt, spinned the idler pulley and tensioner pulley are fine, started engine with belt off, noise didn't go away, which led me to think it is the crank pulley...
if it was the cam lobe, would 5-10 min of engine running mess up the rocker underneath? those pix were taken after about 5 min of running
also, can a crank pulley just go bad?