I have a '00 motor on an engine stand at my shop. Recently I've started tinkering with it to get it ready to swap into my car. I pulled the valve covers and put some oil on all the cam lobes, pulled the plugs and put a little oil in each cylinder. When I turn the crank pulley there is a loud clack sound coming from the upper area of the timing chain cover. Has anyone ever experienced this before? I didn't know if it was just something that would go away once it's running and the oil pressure get where it's supposed to be or if I need to pull the cover off and inspect things further. I don't want to go to the trouble of swapping it out if it's no good. It was supposed to have 16,000 miles on it. The insides of the motor look brand new, so I don't doubt the mileage but that noise has me concerned.

 

The clack sound is normal and is just the cams being pushed up after maximum valve lift. Since there is no oil pressure, there is slack in the main timing chain. The slack in the timing chain is between the crank shaft and the rear bank timing gear, until one of the lobes reaches maximum lift, then the valve spring acts to push the cam farther up and suddenly takes the slack out of the chain. I have experienced the same thing on several VQs I have worked on.

When you first start up the engine, it will be real noisy for the same reason until the timing chain tensioners get pumped up with oil pressure. All the strange and wonderful noises should go away after a minute or two. It helps to crank the engine for 30-45 seconds (in no more than 15 second bursts so you don't overheat the starter) with the fuel pump fuse removed so that the engine gets oiled before starting it up.

 

Okay good. I thought it might be something along those lines. Thank you.

 

There's no need to remove the fuel pump fuse. If you floor the accelerater while cranking, the ECU will do a fuel cut.

 

True dat.


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