Building for the road course...again

Valve lash tool arrived. Guess I’m doing that after work.

as much as I don’t even want to…

 

drinks first and during

just dont try to put the valvecover back on hammered

 

Or with a hammer, for that matter.

 

Haha. Yea. I’ll take it easy. Lashing process should be 1-2 hours. Then I’ll fire it up and we shall see.

 

Lashed the valves. A few were tight. A few were loose. Nothing was totally out though. Not in a huge way anyways. Kinda how I figured.

here’s a video from tonight of my turning the engine over by hand. Everything looks *ok* to me. I don’t know. Fuck

https://youtube.com/shorts/mPEAhdzHr3g?feature=share

 

Same noise? Oil pump? Check the exhaust gasket/manifold area for dark spots?

 

How does the chain tensioner work? Is it ratchet and oil pressure? Is it locking into place? If the ratchet portion isn't working right it could be relaxing and letting your chain slap until the oil starts to flow and gets the oil pressure up

 

This is my oem chain tensioner. I replaced it with a inline pro branded tensioner. That’s supposed to be the best one. The “go to” for any cam/valve train upgrade.
it works the same like oem it just has a stiffer internal spring, and harder/more defined locking/ratcheting teeth.


The internal spring keeps tension while there’s no oil pressure. Once you have pressure that is what keeps the tension.




one thought was yes maybe it is a bad chain tensioner. I thought about maybe swapping my oem one back in to test

 

Same noise. I’ll give the exhaust a check

 

That's exactly the type of tensioner I was talking about. I wonder if the spring is broken/missing. The drain is small on those so it could explain the 4hour cool down

 

I thought if it wasn’t holding tension without oil pressure id have some slack in the chain? Chains definitely tight.

It’s definitely possible though. Guess I should swap it out for testing

 

Can't say without being there just throwing it out as something to investigate

 

Have you run the car with the belt off? Just to eliminate any pulley noise as a possibility

 

I really should try with the belt off. I doubt that’s the issue but it’s possible for sure.

I’m also considering swapping the tensioner so maybe I’ll do that before swapping the gear. It does seem like it’s a bad vtc gear though. I remember when I brake cleaned the cams. Exhaust cam brake clean came flying out of all the holes when I sprayed into 1 of the oil holes. With the intake cam…the brake clean just kinda oozed out slowly. Maybe a blockage ?

here’s a good suggestion I got from the k20 forums. I’m gonna try this I think

 

I tried the above. It appears the vtc gear maybe takes 10 seconds or so to match commanded advance. I believe this is normal. This being said the more videos I watch the more it sounds like it’s the bad vtc gear. I’ll start it up again in a few hours to confirm.

the thing also sprung a coolant leak somewhere. I can’t find it but it’s leaking good. Too cold to really spend any time out there right now

 

10 seconds. That's a pretty long time in terms of counts. Is that test run on first cold start? Or have you repeated the test with a warm start up?

For example run the engine to operating temperature and then let it sit for 2-3 minutes and then retest.

 

Just went out again to fire it up. It’s been 5 hours.

it sounded like rattle until commanded vtc and actual lined up. It took about 10 seconds again. Maybe little less this time. I watched vtc start at 0 then slowly work it’s way up to 20*. I’m having a hard time listening to all these sounds now.

This time I didn’t hear that broken ass sound. Just injector and loud valve train.
I’m probably going crazy by now

 

I should try this. Part of me is like yes 100% vtc rattle. Part of me is like no 100% it’s not the vtc. I don’t know anymore

 

I found another example of vtc rattle. It sounds like it to me I think. Or maybe I really am losing it here lol
Time stamped for vtc rattle

 

If the vtc actuator was bad and making noise like the vid or your car, would there not be damage marks some where like on Speed valve covers? Does anyone on the K20 forums know of a potential spot to check?
Yours may not have failed, but may be lazy?