Hi everyone,

this weekend I drove nearly 2000km on my civic. When getting back home about 200km before arriving I started hearing a ticking sound that got faster with more rpm. Monday I adjusted valve clearance with factory specs and today I started it cold and the noise was not there until warm up.

Things I recently did to the car:
- Retarded a little bit cause I could hear a bit of rod knock
- Seafoam 10ml (1 table spoon) into each cylinder by spark plug hole
- Used crappy high ethanol fuel from Brazil


Thanks

 

 

Hi Ron,

Yes I would have assume the same thing but the rod knock its been there for months and havent been any worse. This noise seems to be happening on the upper part of the engine.

What are the chances the 40 ml of Seafoam I poured directly into the cylinders thinned my oil and thats why is noisy? I really dont think it can start doing such noise but, you never know.

 

did you run the seafoam for a few minutes then change the oil?

Seafoam isnt meant to run for miles and miles.

 

Hi, I run 1/3 of the can through the brake booster, then I poured less than a Table spoon to each spark plug hole let it sit for half an hour and startit back up. the rest into the tank.

I didnt thought running just 40ml of seafoam into almost a gallon of oil would do any hurt.

I keept investigating on the web and I came up it might be the Lost Motion Assemblys. Anyway today I will probably do an oil change and put maybe instead of 5W40 10w40 so its thicker and I make sure no seafoam will thin it too much.

BTW compression is at 185PSI on all 4 cylinders so no bent valves

 

drain that oil and do an oil change. run about 20 miles on new oil and then change that.

I use Rotella 10/30 which has more anti wear agents then conventional oil and is alot cheaper too.
Whole thing should run about 35 bucks with 2 gallons of oil and 2 filters

After you do that, then come back and tell us the condition of your engine noise.

 

Hi there,

ok I changed the oil twice and I also removed the LMAs and cleaned them by letting them soak in seafoam, none of the four were originally sticking and I am still hearing the noise.

I am sure it's getting worse when its warmed up. It really sounds like it's comming from the valve train. I got 184 psi on all 4 cylinders on a second compression test I did.

I am really lost right now about this sound.

 

start of rod knock is my bet, it's not uncommon for seafoam to mess up engines. also ALL Honda's of the 88-01 have some valve tap. did you check valve lash yet ? another possibility less scary then rod knock.

 

HI B Swapped,

I did a valve lash adjustment with the engine cold and using stock parameters. But that did not help. I dont really understand why it only happens when the engine is warmed up. You can hear it a bit while warming up but its definetly there when hot.

I will have to record a good video so I can share.

Thanks!

 

a crack in the manifold will also produce a ticking sound

 

I will shot a video later today. I really sounds metallic ticking.

What are the chances the timming belt skipped a tooth? Could this make this noise?

 

Well, If theres a small crack near the flange, the valve slamming shut would make a ticking sound.

 

OK I recorded the following video...



Any ideas?

 

Bump

 

Is it burning oil?

 

Just a bit, it never ran low though.

 

check the tension on your a/c, steering pump and tensioner pulley. A loose belt can emulate that sound.

 

Hmm.. i was listening but couldnt pimpoint what area got louder as you moved the camera around..

injectors do get noisy, but i dont think thats the issue here.
Sounded like it was under the VC

 

Damn man..whatever that is, it dont sound good, at all..but it does sound like its coming from the head..its weird, sounds like something is lose. Im just tossing it out there, maybe one of the valve springs is messed up? Like it lost its stiffness? Or the cam is slapping the rocker assembly? What kind of oil do you use?

 

the oil has been covered ^^ up there

 

Yes, I changed it twice and ended up switching to 10W40. I am really starting to doubt about me not having adjusted the valves OK. I removed the sparkplugs and using a splastic tuve I made sure it was a TDC and aligining to the camshaft pulley marks.

I have no other option than taking the car to a Mechanic at this point. Anyway I will also ask him to replace the rod bearings since they were doing a very little knock before this.

About the noise I could realize that when decaselerating with the engine in gear (5 Speed manual) I can hear it a bit louder, I dont know if that means something.

 

You only made sure the cams was at tdc? You didnt have feeler gauges, and use the right feeler, and tighten up the valves?

 

Haha yes I did the correct valve adjustment values with a feeler gauge.

 

Haha ok, im sorry, but when you only said you made sure it was at tdc, i was like wait a minute, i just solved the issue!!!! Lol

 

I hate when someone asks something they find the solution on a thread and never share, so i WONT do that .

I ended up sending the car to a Honda Mechanic. Since I was sure my rod bearings were a bit bad I asked him to change those with ACL ones and he did checke the Valve lash, he told me 2 were too stiff and 2 were to loose.

Maybe somehow I did not adjust them well (tried only once). So I guess that was the problem unless it was the Rod bearing noise.

Anyway let me make SURE that the sound from the video is NOT the sound I was hearing initially from my rod bearings so I am confident that was 80% chances due to the valves and 20% to the posibility the rod bearings got worse doing that noise.

Thanks everyone for your help!!