Yes, gas all the way down when you're cranking the engine.

Just for the hell of it, what is your engine serial number? It's on the white sticker next to the crank pulley. I'm leaning towards an oil-jet issue.

I had a customer engine fail like this, and he was SC'ed. I got a copy of the recall letter from the UK. Even though it was in Dutch, I pressed the issue and threatened to stomp my feel if I don't get some help

They covered the new engine, and charged 500 for R&R of the SC.

 

i checked a while back, cant read the number. but its an early 02. think feb 02 off the sticker in the door.

i'm off to do the test, i'll post some numbers in about a hour. I'd be more then willing to try anything to get it fixed

 

In this pic, if you look just to the drivers side of the head gasket where it says INLINE PRO, you'll see a rectangular box. the engine serial# can be found here as well.

 

this is how i did it (hopefully right)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ll-qRtqLbn8



Also as seen the number 4 spark plug was much darker then the rest. they got about 2K miles on them

numbers
#1 1500kpa - 220psi
#2 1500kpa - 220psi
#3 1550kpa - 225psi
#4 1550kpa - 225psi

number three and four where very close to 1500kpa needle was a tad bit over it.

here the engine after the test. almost no tapping, maybe a little towards the end. like i said, it's not always there.
you can hear it around 40-45 and towards the end

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0HwnOEt_28

 

i agree with billman... sounds very similar to my car... that had a scuffed bore...

There are vids of my car on here as well... with the same noise... if you don't mind the noise... and dont go WOT, you can keep the car running like this for a while... just check oil consumption

 

sorry for the dumb question, WOT stands for wide open throttle or what? what do people mean when they say WOT

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyBllnMZaLE

here's my vid

 

yeah i remember your vid. gave me goose bumps. my noise is much quieter and not as consistant as yours. it's intermitend. some times i cant hear it at all for days. then it'll show up for a while, be gone again.

 

it still hurts to hear it... but at least my car will be done on friday! with more power!

 

damn videos are still uploading.
hands down, how much did it cost to fix it. or did you do alot more upgrading. i'm just trying to prepare myself mentally... lol