I have a horrible clanking noise coming from the front of the motor that I thought was a lifter, then pulled the valve cover and everything looks good with no metal and no strange wear. When tuning the crank by hand I hear/feel a tick on the crank rpm, not the valve train.

I'm going to go ahead and buy expensive feelers and check the valves, but I fear bottom end disaster like a spun bearing. Are there any other ideas on what this could be?

So much for TXMC Houston.

 

:(

 

 

Suspension boo boo?

 

great post, would read again.

 

Check driven accessories (alt, etc) and idler/tensioner?

 

audio/video would help.

 

Someone steal your oil? I'm going to go with bottom end disaster(no pun intended)

 

I can feel and hear the tick (long extension on my cranium) through the base of the head.

 

I had a similar hard to find noise. One of the small bolts on the crank pulley had sheared off and others were loose.

Your problem sounds more serious since you feel it when manually rotating the crank. :(

 

I tried but the audio on my shitty cam is abject failure.

 

brb, going to check a few things. Pray to Satan for me.

 

blood orgy!

 

Pull the timing belt cover just to make sure something hasn't fallen down in there and is binding up with the crank timing gear.

 

I had a similar problem. I could hear it sorta make a wierd noise when manually rotating by wrench. Mine ended up being a spun bearing. It was a super terrible noise even at idle. I thought for sure it was comming from the valve cover so i took that off... Found nothing. So i pulled the motor for the second time and sure enough as soon as i pulled the oil pan and all the caps... one of my rod bearings were toast. Easy way to tell... drain your oil and look for a golden metallic shimmer. At least that was the color i saw when mine spun.

 

+1 on the crank pully. The little dowel pin on mine snapped and the 4 little bolts ovaled out their holes. And since my trigger wheel was on the front pully my timing was rocking +- 10 degrees!

Take off your accessory belts and see if you can rock the damper back and fourth on the boss.

 

Bring it to the guy who put it together and get a professional opinion.

 

rod's about to take a dump. Your motor is doomed.

/thread

 

didn't seen any busted valve springs?

 

Valve springs are fine but get this, and its confirmed by Kotomile...it looks like the intake cam is jumping on the back side of the lobe when I rotate by hand and pops. We put a little torque on the cap and could no recreate the symptom, but it was crazy looking.

I'm going to buy feelers, check record each measurement, retorque, and crank the car to see what happens tomorrow.