When my car is idleing, it makes a tapping noise, like a screwdriver tapping a piece of metal, but the sound is intermittent at idle, when I increase RPM to 2k-3k or so, the sound is continuous. I thought it might be pinging/detonation but the plugs look fine, a little bit of black soot around the porclein, no white on ground electrode.. also, AFR indicates rich. So with that out of my mind i'm thinking valves? The thing is, the tapping just all of a sudden popped up, didn't increase over time, just started to tap loudly. I think if it was valve adjustment it would get worse over time. I'm stumped and I dont really want to drive my car until i figure out what the hell this tapping noise is. anybody have any ideas as to what my problem may be? oh, my engine is a b18a with an integra type r head.

 

bump!

 

i would say valve adjustment

 

Rod knock

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Keebler &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Rod knock </TD></TR></TABLE>

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by iastreetracing.com &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i would say valve adjustment </TD></TR></TABLE>

one of the two, or both

 

yup sounds like Rod Knock to me too

Sucks fo u

my last ride was knockin at 100,000 cuz last guy that had car didn't know shiz!

 

LMA's ( lost motion assemblies )?
Does the noise go away when vtec engages? if so its probably your LMA's going out.
My B16 use to do the same thing then replaced LMA's with type r ones and it all went away.. HTH

 

Not rod knock, the noise sounds like its coming from the cylinder head, not the bottom end.. i know i have a bad LMA but it has never been as loud as it is now

 

Injectors can get pretty darned noisey in certain instances too. Try the screwdriver handle to your ear and probe around to see where the noise is most loud.

 

well it started tapping after i installed prelude injectors and made VAFC adjustments, thats why i was worried about detonation but like i said the plugs are fine, afr gauge indicates rich.. so thats out of the question.. the tapping is just too damn loud, you can hear the tapping over my engine and exhaust, doesnt sound good at all!

 

i would say valve adjustment, maybe timing issues? could be an exhaust leak...i had a blown header gasket and it made a loud tapping metalic sound, and i thought it was my valves, but then i found the leak. Im just trying to toss up some ideas

 

I broke a valve spring, no piston damage!

 

Good to hear you found it out before anything was severely damaged. - Darrell

 

how was the idle when all this happened?

I have a similar sound in my motor. and my idle is really rough and it will "misfire/stumble" once in a while.

 

didnt idle worth a ****, no throttle response, and it would backfire out of the intake manifold. im guessing the loud tapping was from the valve hitting the piston.

 

eeek! mines sounded like that for over a year, lol.