Well I have a 2000 base lude, changed the clutch 400miles ago, and before that the car was just garaged for almost a year. Car has 74,000 miles

PROBLEM

When I first start the car, or when I rev the engine and the tach comes down around 2K to 1K I hear this rattling noise, almost like axhaust vibration coming from the driver side of the engine. Under the hood the noise is more pronounced and seems to be coming from all around the valve cover area. My first thought was that I hadn't put the throw out bearing correctly when I replaced the clutch, but engaging and disengaging the clutch doesn't seem to change the noise.

PROBLEMS TO CHOSE FROM

I searched and found a bunch of posts reguarding a similar problem which seem to revolve around the auto tensioner, but I'm not sure.
I don't have a money-tree in my back yard unfortuntely, so I can only persue one problem at a time. Please tell me which one to start with.


Thanks in advance for all your help

 

What are the mods done to the car?

 

Only mods are, Clutchmaster 8lb flywheel , and AEM cold air intake.

 

A low rpm rattle, one of the options is valve adjustment? That only takes a leaf or two to adjust yourself, why don't you do that and rule it out.

If it's flapping sounds from the driver side, it would point to the timing belt, except you should search to see why it would make that sound at a lower rpm.
If it sounds like metal on metal, then it probably is. Poke stuff and see what happens.

 

drain the oil and put mobil 1 synthetic 10w30 back in. sounds like you just have lifter tick. also drain the gas tank and fill it with a fresh tank of 93. you probably have less than 85 octane in your tank right now

 

What lifter tick? Are we talking about a Honda engine here?

 

if its a metal rattle sound ... take a look at your exhaust manifold's heatshield ... mine tends to bump stuff from time to time making it rattle a bit at 1-2k... i just use a big as screw driver and bend slightly on the right side on the heatshield... sounds funny but gets rid of the sound for about 6 months before it slowly comes back again... dont have to worry much longer about that though... new header going on.. heatshield coming off

 

I bet its the tensioner, I had the same problem did two valve adjustment within 1 year still didn't go away then I just decided to bite the bullet and replace that bull **** auto-tensioner.