how long have you had the car? i still have fits of parania- learning slowly its just the way the car is. we also have to remember- our cars are 5/6 years old- and on a motor which (in my case) daily taps 9k- there going to be slightly louder then my moms ford escort. only s2k i have heard that didnt have a ton of noises was an 05 i drove a few days ago withh 150 miles on it- i had test drove an 05 3 weeks ago with 6k on it that sounded almost as loud as mine. hope it helps...

p.s. not that any of the above is going to stop me from thinking my car is going to explode in 2 days- no matter what car i have i always think iit is on the verge of throwing a rod threw the block

 

also- how much was the valvetrain? notice any difff. while driving? i would like to do the same thing...

 

A rod knock is rarely intermittent. They can start quietly, but are usually very loud, and get louder as RPM increases. A really bad rod knock ends with a "boom" and rod outside the block. Once a rod bearing clearance is great enough to cause a knock, the damage has been done.

Low oil pressure at operating temp is a possiblilty, but it's gotta be really low. Under 5psi low. you should be seeing the oil light if that was the case.

I'd be looking at valve clearances and the timing chain tensioner for sources of your noise.

 

If you spun a bearing, you would be riding home in a tow truck.

 

good to hear that i'm not the only one with a knocking noise and a day to day paranoia that my engine's gonna die.

I used to have a vw, that ended up leaking coolant into oil. 2 months of searching for the cause, a new head, then a complete different used engine and rebuilt turbo later - still leaking coolant. Made me paranoid.

Anything out of what i'm used to (3months owner) scares me. My buddy laughs at me every time i drive by a wall and ask him - doesn't that sound weird?

Do they have medicine for that?

 

Wow, you guys are great. I"m glad to hear I'm not the only paranoid one around here. I drove all the way home (I have a looooooooooooong commute) last night, with zero problems. If I hear it again, I figure I'll just take it to the shop.

Silencer, that's too funny! I was so worried about that myself, I had to start a thread a few weeks back just to ask about the sound these things make when it ricochets off walls, cars, etc.! A lot of us are just nuts, but at least it shows we love our cars...

Biz, to answer your q's. I've owned my car for a little over a year. I've only put about 5K miles on it, and it's a very low mileage car (MY00 with 27K as of now). It took me a long time to realize that these are just inherently noisy engines, too. I finally stopped worrying about that, but I'll happily panic when I hear something new!

The headwork/valvetrain did make a world of difference (ok, maybe not a "world", but def noticeable). Much smoother, revs more freely, and definitely a touch more powerful, but note that I was in SERIOUS need of the work anyway, and I can pretty much guarantee that I was down on power beforehand (I don't even want to tell you my compression #s!). So, in truth, I don't know how much of the improvement to chalk up to the new stuff and how much to the repair itself. This was all done about three months ago. Overall, very very happy with it.

The previous owner overrevved the car (don't get me started) and pretty much all of the valvetrain was done for. So I figured since I needed a valve job, might as well get a 3-angle... Since I needed new retainers, valves, etc. might as well get the Ferrea stuff now (big plans in the future ). I stuck with Honda for the valves themselves, though. Still the best, IMHO.

The way the car is now, I probably wouldn't have done any of this just for kicks, but I needed the repairs anyway. Kinda pointless mods at this point, but they'll come in handy later. You'll see...

 

so if a rod is knocking- even a little- how do you nip it in the bud before you throw a rod? also- how much was it for the valvetrain rebuild? curious...

 

Re-build it.

 

big block, short block, or both? anybody knows how much that cost is roundabout?

 

You'll just need a shortblock re-build. The head has nothing to do with a rod knocking. It is simply the main bearing or rod bearing wearing extremely thin or actually breaking (spun bearing).

And I think you mean long block,short block or both.
Big blocks are from american car manufactureres.

I priced out a head rebuild and I think it came out to ~1,000 in parts alone. So you can figure 1,500-2,000 for a head rebuild without doing any crazy porting or anything.