Hello, H-T!

I'll keep it short - I bought a 97 CX hatchback and it's all stock, 5 speed.

So after some fiddling with it and fixing things here and there, I noticed on drives that it has a lot of valve chatter. Here are some conditions/symptoms:

1. It gets loud under any load more than like 30% and much louder once it reaches operating temperature.
2. I have brought the valve lash back into check when the whole car was cold - it sat overnight. Specs were good even after tightening the nut back down to 12 ft.-lbs.
3. It has stock header with stock cat and it's cracked between cylinders 2 and 3, could I be hearing things through the crack?

It has no oil leaks, about 148k miles on it. Oil looks a good color and it doesn't ever lose any coolant.


So... needless to say I'm not sure what it could be. I will try to get a video of the sound tomorrow. But for now, any ideas from my fellow H-T peeps? Thanks.

 

Did you adjust the valves? If their not adjusted right they will tick like crazy.

 

Yes, sorry I meant to write that I have done a valve adjustment.

The noise is the same after. Not louder or quieter

 

Hummm that puzzling lol. Idk then bro. Other then thinking outside of the box, maybe head is off time alittle, I'm pretty sure the head is getting good oil flow. Or valves not seating right during operation. I'm just throwing stuff out there. Sorry bro that's all I got.

 

You're probably hearing the exhaust leak. Valve noise does not get louder under load.

 

I'll look into making sure the timing hasn't jumped Thanks for the help bruv.

 

Yup, exhaust leak at/near the manifold will make you think it's valve chatter. I would check for an exhaust leak while it's running with the tail pipe clogged with a rag. Have someone slightly give it gas while you feel for a leak. Also, look for soot on other engine components near by.