I posted in another thread about this, but I just made a new video and uploaded it so I'm posting this now in a new thread and maybe someone will have some ideas.

For a year or so I've had this strange noise coming from my engine. Here are two videos of it, one is it idle and one while driving.

While idling - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNX3-56yI-s
While driving - http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yix0PL7Vn2E (sorry about the dirty windshield, haha)

I hear it almost every time I start driving the car even if the engine is relatively warm. I've tried to hear wear the sound is coming and I think it's coming from the passenger side of the engine somewhere near the back of the engine close to the firewall.

I'll hear the sound usually for 4 or 5 minutes after starting up the car. I hear it when I am in gear and at low rpms. As the rpms climb to about 2000 the sound will dissapear. Then I'll shift at 2500 or so and I'll hear the sound again in the new gear as the rpms move up until I get to 2000 rpms again and it dissapears again. I hear it at idle sometimes also, soon after starting up the car.

What I know: It's NOT the VTC's, I know what that sounds like. Also, the sound does not affect the cars performance in any way, it's just an annoying sound.

Could the sound be a leak in the exhaust manifold (maybe a broken stud?), maybe dissapearing when the engine is warm (though I still hear the sound after starting up the car when it's been sitting for only a half hour or so)? Maybe a broken valve spring like one person guessed?

Thanks for all your help!

Oh, and I'll climb under the car tommorrow to see what I can see, maybe an exhuast leak or something, I really have no idea and don't know what to look for.

 

Sounds like a vac leak or loose belt. But also hows your oil level

~Alex

 

that's weird. doesn't sound like a typical exhaust leak but who knows.

 

Oil level is fine. Would a loose belt stop making this fluttering sound after the engine was running for a few minutes, though? Where would I look for a vacuum leak?

 

Yes, since the belt will eventually grab. Open the FSM and get the belt tension specs and go check them.

~Alex

 

Sounds mechanical to me ..........

Power-steering pump? (don't now if these are speed sensitive already but if they are it would fit the symptoms.) .................... for that matter also the rack while the pump is working ................ enough PS fluid?

Remove its belt and see if anything changes

 

a couple loose lifters is what it sounds like to me

 

It sounds like a form of oil starvation, or just poor oil in general.
I had a problem that produced a similar noise related to bad a camshaft. And yes, it was front bank passenger side.

 

but don't leave it like that for long because that's also your waterpump belt..

 

I don't think it's oil. I just changed my oil and I run full synthetic and a toyota filter.

New info, though. I crawled under and the sound is definitely coming from somewhere near the back of the engine (firewall side) on the passenger side. I don't see any broken manifold studs (though I could only see/feel 4 of the 6 on the rear exhaust manifold). The sound could definetely be coming from the belt area. My ps fluid oil isn't low.

 

Does the VE have lifters?

 

i don't think so.... lobes actuate down on VE, up on VG

 

they are followers same function as lifters.

 

The correct term per fsm is "Hydraulic Lash Adjusters"

 

sin no nyms

 

funny thing is i looked at those and even read the warning about how to handle them (not sideways!) but didn't think of them as being the equivalent of lifters. Mainly because to me they were the same thing as on the opposite side of the rocker arm on a VG, both pushing downward, so I just assumed they were te same as those.

(just looked at fsm again) wait... the ve heads show rocker arms too. now i'm confused.

 

Those were two separate trains of thought. Just because it's new oil doesn't rule out camshaft issues. They're easy enough to inspect. Look for scoring on your bearing caps. If there are signs of wear, your cams may be out of whack. Make sure they are torqued to spec. I've had a noise very similar to yours and it was cam related. And it's also in the same proximity to where you are hearing the noise from.
Not saying I'm right, but I just have a hunch.

 

What do you mean by out of whack? How would I torque it to spec? Sorry but I've never been under the valve cover, oh and I'd need to install a new valve cover gasket afterwards too, right?

 

Do you mean check the belt tensioner torque?

 

no the tension of the belt itself. there's a spot along each belt where you are supposed to measure how much the belt will deflect from form under a certain amount of force (or maybe it's a fixed distance and you're measuring the force). Either way, that's the official way to do it. The other way is to just push in on the belt and see if it goes in alot. Or if it rolls over more than like 30 degrees when you try to twist it in the middle.

 

By out of whack I meant that the shaft is possibly scoring a bearing cap. The FSM should list the torque spec for the caps.
I was speculating that if work had been performed in there in the past they may have been tightened incorrectly. And I was also speculating that as old cars often have more than one owner, we don't know how well it was maintained prior to you. It could have suffered oil starvation in the past and things are acting up now.
The gasket replacement is your call based on inspection. I've removed the cover before without replacing it - but it always makes sense to replace if you're unsure though.
I just think what I heard in your video is a metal on metal noise.
But it's all just uneducated guesswork at the end of the day...

 

So are you thinking a bearing cap may be loose and not tightened enough so that the camshaft is bouncing a little and scraping metal on metal? Was this the issue you had with your camshaft?

 

My situation involved a dented oil pan, which resulted in a lack of sufficient lubrication. The cam bearings are supposed to be tightened down in a sequence, as well as to a specified torque. I can't say if mine was over or under tightened actually. It wasn't evident just by looking at it, and it was the first time I removed the cam since owning this engine, but the cap was scored. The reason I wasn't aware of this before is because it's not my original engine - it was a swap, so it was the first time I became aware of the problem with the caps, which caused the noise I'm sure I'm hearing your video. The dented oil pan I knew about though - and that was my own dumbass fault.

 

Hm, ok. So all I'll need to do is pop off the valve cover and loosen all the bearing caps and re-torque them in the correct sequence to the correct torque. Is that all you did and it fixed the sound your engine was making? Could the cap maybe be scored bad enough that I'd need a new one? Was yours?