MachZ

My brother has a 97 Civic with the VTEC D16 (not sure of the rest of the engine code). Ran great, never made any abnormal sounds minus the valves needing a bit of adjustment but then... he ran it 2 quarts low on oil... and it started making a horrible tapping noise. When he first called about it I figured it could have been a rod or main bearing but after listening to the noise it definitely sounds like it is coming from the heads.

I pulled the LMA's and felt for smoothness when pressing on them and didn't feel anything abnormal so I went through and adjusted all of the rockers to spec but it is still making the noise. When starting up, it sounds like hydraulic lifters pumping up as there is the tapping noise then it goes away. At idle and low RPM there is no tapping. Around 2,500 RPM, maybe slightly more, the tapping starts. I opened the throttle by hand once, doing a quick series of "blips" to the throttle, and it made a rather severe tap noise once then continued on its normal tapping at the proper RPM.

I've never messed with Honda's before but I've read that the LMA's are rather notorious for tapping so wanted to see if this tapping sounds like the LMA's to you guys. Here's the video: D16 Tapping
(video is about 7 mb so if you have a slow connection may take a while to load)

Thanks in advance for any help you guys can provide!


Modified by MachZ at 5:24 PM 10/14/2008


Modified by MachZ at 5:25 PM 10/14/2008


Modified by MachZ at 5:26 PM 10/14/2008

blkegcoupe

The URL you provided does not work.

MachZ

Sorry about that, typed in the wrong website somehow. Should work now.

MachZ

Bump

MachZ

Forgot to add, the tapping happens no matter what temperature the engine is at. It makes the same tapping noise whether its cold or warmed up.

I've read a little more on the LMA's and may not have tested them properly so I'm going to check that again but if anyone has any ideas based on the video, that would be awesome.

egsleepercivic

sounds like a bigger problem than the LMA's, i wish I could give u more info but it would just be a guess with the y8 i know they had a weak oil pump, he may have ruined some bearings running that low on oil

gl

MachZ

What's strange is the tapping noise isn't constant like the bearings I've heard go bad and it seems to be loudest in the heads. Hopefully I'll get to look it over again in the next few days to see if I notice something else... until then I'm stumped.