what up HT. ive got my h23a1 with 190,xxx miles in a bb2 and its been smooth cruisin til now. for the past two days i have been hearing this ticking sound coming from the front left region of my car when i am accelerating. it sounds really bad when i'm going up hills. i've tried locating where it is coming from exactly but it just sounds like its inside the head. my exhaust is pretty loud since i just got my new header installed about a week ago and it kinda drowns out the tick. i can hear it the most at about 3k rpm going uphill. my initial thoughts were: bad axle or cv joint (the driver's side cv boot is split in half, grease everywhere), may be in need of valve adjustment?, timing belt?, fan belt?, worst of all, rod knock?? anyone ever experienced this before? what would be most likely the problem? im trying to keep it out of the shop. i'd rather do the work myself if at all possible. thanks for any help. much appreciated.

 

Do you hear it when only going up hills? Under load only? Does it do it at idle? I had a clicking/valves type noise. It turned out my ignition timing was too advanced.

 

what timing? cam or ignition timing? how would i know which one is messed up?

 

If you look above the H23A1 stamp there's a hole there, you get a timing light and point it in there and you should see a mark, there's a little arrow on the block and it should line up with the red mark on the flexplate.

 

Take the accessories belt off and rev by hand to see if its the block or other things making the noise.

If its the engine itself, its either a valve, piston wrist-pin, or rod bearing.

If you have a metal rod thats able to fit down the Spark plug hole. Bring each cylinder up to TDC one at a time, stopping just a tiny bit after the piston starts its downward stroke. Next push firmly down, if it budges at all without the crank moving as well its either the wrist pin or rod bearing on that cylinder.

Repeat on all 4 until you find the problem, not the most accurate way of telling. But IS a way without tearing the block apart.

If non of them budge Id would do a valve adjustment, and maybe a compression leak down.

 

I would determine whether the noise was vehicle speed related or engine speed, if it does it with the vehicle stationary then i would advise what Sparksman said; if its vehicle speed then i would start with that cv-shaft, either way id at least put a new boot on it