Correct. Hundreds of posts here with audio. Mechanical valve train is noisier than other cars even when perfect.

My car was used and the last oil change (per the CARFAX) was at Sears with a Brand-X filter. I did all sorts of preventive maintenance and the TCT was the easiest. Valves were easy but very tedious and I basically just watched my buddy do that job.

-- Chuck

 

Received my TCT from Billman250 yesterday and installed it this morning. I did not remove the airbox i kinda moved it out of the way so I could use my non-90 degree needle nosed pliers to pull out the pin. Started the car and it was fine checked for oil leaks under the TCT and there was none. I'll be sending my old one tomorrow

 

Although I had more miles on my 09, 40K, I had this discussion with Billman. It is a matter of when not if, it will fail. As you know the OEM or sandblasted ones will fail also. Without symptoms I went ahead and replaced it with Billman's X. Easy. Peace of mind.

 

After reading this, I told a customer I'd accept his Rock Auto TCT unit as a core. Here are my findings:

Not a single part inside the unit is hardened. Not even the worm gear, the piston, the pin, the inner worm gear seat, or the oil jet. The springs are a maybe.

The oil jet is made of aluminum, and the jet tip is getting torn apart by the worm gear to a point where it is about to be sawed off.
The worm gear is worn down to a point where all edges are razor sharp.
the worm gear is a poor fit in the seat and is cutting a circular line in it.
The worm gear seat is spinning loose in the housing, cutting huge groves in itself and the housing.
The small spring is eating the pin apart.
The pin is digging through the piston bottom.
The orings are completely flattened out. I'm not even sure they were ever orings.

The entire unit is disintegrating, and pumping tons of powdered metal through the entire top end, unfiltered. First stop for the shavings is the camwheel. Then on to the aluminum cam bearing surfaces.

All this has happened in only 10k to 15k miles. I can have the customer chime in if needed, and I can share pics if anyone likes.

Put your oem tct back in immediately.

 

Thanks for inspecting it for me, I would've never known how catastrophic this thing would be. I have the exact mileage after finding out some maintenance logs, It had about 12,800 miles on it before it started failing (very noticeably at least). Very disturbing as my engine is babied it's unfortunate crap like this happens, thankfully it still appears to run the same. I'll try and do a compression test down the road and change my oil ASAP.

 

jeezus christ.

 

Got my Billman250 TCT in and installed it just now. It is an easy install for sure but I found that I needed to remove the airbox to get good access to the maintenance hole. Went to the post office and dropped my old unit into the mail back to Billman for the core refund. Super easy dealing and I am glad to get this unit into the engine for the peace of mind.

 

Wonder where that Rock Auto TCT is made? Looks like inferior metal plus inferior engineering. Sadly... a big portion of many aftermarket parts, these days.

 

made by beck/arnley, a company i thought i could trust having success in the past with them.

 

PM'd Billman