Hi every one. Some issues decided to appear. I am experiencing a severe loss of power when out of vtec. Idle is normal. No CEL. Valvetrain gets very noisy after engine warms up, but sounds normal while cold. Engine temp seems to be a factor relating to valve train noise.

What I did prior to this happening:
-Replace all belts
-Replace all cam seals except the one on the distributor
-converted from auto to manual tensioner

Just finished disassembling everything to check the timing, everything is dead on. The cam holders were torqued down to factory specs using a beam type torque wrench. Valve lash has been adjusted to factory specs. So the question is what could be the cause of that?

Thanks for the help in advance

 

Have you checked timing or done a compression test?

 

Did compression and leak down prior to the timing belt job. The tests turned out be good. Haven't checked the ignition timing yet. Don't have a timing light, I will get one either tomorrow or on saturday.

 

Was the valve lash set with the engine cold? Can you describe the noise any more or localize where it is coming from?

 

Yes, valve lash was set with the engine cold. It had several day to cool. The noise appears to be coming from the head, which leads me to believe its the valve train. The thing is that it starts getting abnormally loud after few minutes, engine warms up a bit. I've been thinking though, if its really the valve train that is making the noise, or is it pinging that I am hearing. If it is I am even more lost since nothing really changed since last time engine was running normal. Only replaced few seals, the belts and the t-belt tensioner. Rotated the crank by hand before starting it to make sure there won't be any P to V issues.

 

i think i found the problem. Almost didn't catch it. Today I rechecked the valve lash. Well, the three of the for cylinders was with in spec. #2 was wack out of spec. One side was really tight, the other really loose. So i thought to my self how can i miss this before. Anyways, I re-adjusted it to how it was supposed to be. Did on crank rpm by hand. Re-checked all cylinders, everything was good. Decided to do another 3-4 rpm and re-check. Once again 1,3 and 4 were within spec. #2 was not even close. I guess that answer's the question of the massive loss of power with normal idle, and loud valve train.

I noticed that one of the adjustment screws for the valves was really hard to turn while holding the nut, if that rings a bell.

That's pretty much as far as i've gotten, another couple minutes and i was going to light that thing on fire and be over and done with it. I gor a feeling that head disasembly is next.