I was going down the highway. Approaching an intersection and the light turns yellow. I go to shift down into 4th and accelerate through the light. Doing so, I get stuck in a gear with it mostly being in neutral and it revs up in neutral to about 7k. I panic and try and throw it in gear. Unfortunately I threw it in 2nd.

Sure enough.. I listen for any signs of anything wrong and sure enough. "TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP" Ah, so pissed at myself. Stupid mistake! I only assume this is the valves bent? I had to drive another 10 miles to my Physics teacher's house and I parked there and ate dinner/played basketball. And then I made the 50 mile trek back home at 2500rpm (50 mph) all the way down in Cruise Control.

I just recorded the engine sound on my tape recorder and then recorded that through my microphone on the computer and made it into a quick MP3. If anybody can offer a direct verdict on my situation I would be greatly appreciate it. Right now, I'm hoping it's a bent valve or something along those lines and I can just get it straightened out (but probably will get new ones for peace of mind/insurance).

Here's the MP3: It's tapping at idle with a little throttle somewhere in there.
http://www.jovialrobot.net/justin/files/headtap.mp3

BTW: It idles perfect at 750.

One more for me.

 

might have spun a bearing

 

I zinged mine in a big way... 2nd gear at 87mph or so coming out of the last turn at Watkins Glen I thought I had just bent all my exhaust valves, but SGT found that I compressed the ring lands on one piston.

I'm just glad nothing decided to exit the block at high velocity.

Warren

 

Did your motor sound like mine?

 

[Nerd Alert]

Well, I imported the file into a wav editor to view the waveform and counted the frequency of the ticks. I'm getting 381 ticks/min which would be half your idle speed of 762 rpm. So, your ticking sound is only ocuring once every two revolutions. I think this would rule out a spun bearing because that would be the same frequency as your idle speed, correct?

I did notice the wave form for each tick looked like there was a secondary tick a 1/4 phase after the first, but this could just have been an echo picked up by the mic. Or, if we take a moment to really over analyze this, it could be the next cylinder that fires after the initial loud tick has a less severly bent valve.

[/Nerd Alert]

(Yes, I was bored )

 

Good nerdin' there Floyd!

 

God daam!! good analysis!!! where did u get ur phd?? ...

 

niceeee use of frequency statistics. a buddy of mine ended up spinning a rod bearing and it sounded like what you have, only his was a deeper sound, not as high pitched. he also bent some valves a different time and it sounds like the ticking you are experiencing. im sorry to hear your bad luck, i hope you find out what is wrong and its not too expensive to fix.

 

this may be a long shot but what if a rocker got loose? do a valve adjustment and listen again? just a thought

 

That is got to be the worst sound I have ever heard sorry to hear about your bad luck .

 

Thanks guys, especially you Floyd.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's a valve tapping. I think it's pretty much just one. I can even swear it's from cyclinder 3. Those secondary taps may be from me revving the engine a tad to let you hear the tapping increase as the engine rpm did.

So what do you guys think the verdict should be? Just get a valve adjustment and listen if anything's wrong? Right now, I'm just thankful the thing just didn't fall into the cylinder - she ain't moving now.

BTW: Floyd, Pink Floyd's has been my favorite band from ever since I can remember. Liked em better with Roger Waters. (saw him 2 summers ago @ Nissan)

 

Damn, that is nasty!!!!

 

Pub

Damn, that sounds horrible

Floyd

Your smart

 

My guess is a bad rod bearing. Prepare to surrender thy wallet

 

damn that sounds awful

 

now that i listen to it again it sounds exactly like the time my friend forgot to tightend one of the locking bolts on a rocker after his he did a valve adjustment. We just had to go back in a readjust that rocker and the loud click went away.

 

Actually, I cut a section off from the end to analyze, after the engine had gone back to idle after the rev, so it wasn't that. Hopefully, it is just one cylinder, and it's just an echo of the original noise.

Me too. I saw Roger at Nissan and up in Baltimore a little earlier in the tour. Great shows. I just recently saw a tribute band called Several Species and they were awesome. Highly recommended.

Good luck with your car. Let us know what happens.

 

Sorry about your luck..... I hope your car isn't as bad as mine was but it sounds damn near identical to the way mine sounded...... all 8 exhaust
valves bent. ( Only 2 were bent severly) Tell us what you find out.

 

and floyd, you are one sick ****.

 

I called the Acura Dealership and they're going to look at it. It's not under warranty. I'm just going to have them do a valve adjustment and see if that fixes it. If not, I guess they'll go in and find out what's going on. So no car for 5 days atleast. I hope it's just the valves.

 

that sounds like a diesel, is that a new JDM conversion??

I tried to have the dealer do a valve adjustment and it they wanted ~$350, you may just want to have them do a diagnostics and find out for sure what is wrong.

 

I wouldn't allow Acura to be the one who tells you what they THINK is wrong.I know a certain person who did almost the exact same thing as you and it ended up being a bent #3 rod and 3 of the valves in cylinder #3 were screwed.

Atleast pull the plugs and check them for anything unusual.

 

Ouch!

Wish you good luck.

 

Dude, there is no valve adjustment in the world that is going to fix that.

Warren

 

Update: I took it to my dad's friends' garage. As soon as he took off the head, a bolt fell into the cyclinder. Tons of screws and what have you were pretty loose. I'm not for certain what was exactly wrong, however I dont think it was anything truly major, but I'll find out soon enough and post so you guys can learn from my mistakes. Anyways, my car is back! ..just waiting to pick it up along with the bill.