so ive narrowed it down to detonation problems, my timing is set right at 11 degrees and yet i still get the clatter sound, i have a 97 civic ex coupe, d16y8 with 98000 miles. ive already ran seafoam, marvel, amsoil pi and also changed to higher grade of fuel and yet its still there and ridiculously embarassing to drive and listen to the noise . so i really need some input on how to get rid of this. or if i can. thanks.

 

What all have you checked? Could it be valve lash? Are you throwing any codes?

 

no codes at all. intakes are set at 8 and exhausts are set at 10 as far as valve clearances. ive done the timing over and over again and its set as close to 12 as i can get it, by being a y8 im assuming its vtec, would that have anything to do with it, it kicks in at 4400 rpm right i might be completely wrong. ive had to change out the distributor because the knock sensor went out in there, ive also changed out the knock sensor on the crank. the noise didnt appear until after i redid the timing belt from the previous owner, after i corrected it is when the noise came. ive had it all apart atleast 4 times . i just cant get rid of it, and when the ac is on it gets worse. it doesnt do it inn neutral but it does it under acceleration while driving.

 

Your VTEC point is 5500 if memory serves me...

There is no knock sensor in the distributor.

How are you checking your engine timing?

Mechanical Timing:
Do all the marks line up on the crank pully (white TDC mark) and your cam gear TDC mark?

 

All the marks are dead on. like i said i did it four times just to make sure. i changed out the knock sensor after that, because i kept getting the cel for it. but i after reading the chiltons manual it said to ring out the wires in the distributor i thought because there was i guess the knock sensor signal goes through it maybe not sure ill read it again when i get to work. anyway it ended up being a bad distributor, so i got a new one and stabbed it in, and redid the ignition timing and it seems too be right. the timing is sitting steady on 11 degrees, the only thing i havent done is recheck the valve clearances since ive done all of this. i did do it in the begining before i changed all of this stuff. but again this didnt start until after the knock sensor was replace. and im not getting any cel's now.

 

Cool, distributor problems can be such a pain in the a$$

 

when does the sound happen?

 

It happens only in gear and under acceleration

 

Why are you so certain that the sound is being caused by the engine? If you are able to rev it in neutral and it sounds fine, I would really suspect that the sound is coming from somewhere else.

Do a compression and leakdown test on the engine. If the numbers are good, rule out the mechanical timing and move on.

Have you tried different settings for the ignition timing? Perhaps it wants to be advanced or retarded. Are you sure that you are using the correct stripe on the crank pulley? Are you jumping the service connector when you set the timing?

Just had an idea: perhaps the problem is with a cylinder other than #1. Have you tried checking the ignition timing on ALL of the cylinders? (If the timing is evenly spaced, you would just add 90 degrees for each cylinder, but that's an assumption that is not necessarily valid.)

Let us know so that we can move on to more specific timing troubleshooting, or to finding the other cause of the problem.

Good Luck

 

its in the engine more specifically im pretty sure it is in the top end. if its pre- ignition or detonation if i retard the timing a couple of degrees theoretically it should help it out. oh and im using the middle of the three stripes together. i didnt think of retarding or advancing it, i dont know why but i didnt. i will do the compression test tomorrow morning when i get to work. i think as far as the timing concerned its where its supposed too be according to the factory. and yes the service connector was jumped.

 

It's odd that you can't set the timing perfectly at 12 degrees BTC. When you are adjusting the ignition timing, is the engine idling to spec (700 rpm) with no load?

Are any CEL codes currently thrown?

 

exhaust leak?

 

no codes are being thrown and the rpm is set at 670 thats what the sticker says so thats what i put it at. and i know its odd i cant get exactly 12 degrees, with the computer jumped i got it to 11 and i assumed when the computer is un jumped it would make up some of the diference atleast a degree. but it didnt and it stayed right on 11 degrees. i wonder if it could be something in the computer. who knows.