about 6 months ago the only noise i really heard here was the timing chain 'slapping' the valve covers....and a tiny bit of vtc 'tick'.

but now, it is insanely loud under there.....alot of clacking going on, along with my HUGE exhaust leak as well....anyone got any ideas? maybe the cam is worn out?

also, it seems *almost* intermittent...sometimes it is louder than others....sometimes i can barely hear it in the cab, and others, i can't ignore it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KfbhYqYY38

 

Sounds normal........for a bmw. .

Do you have your VTC's grounded? What about miles on your oil change? What oil filter? Wheres your exhaust leak? Some of that noise might be broken studs.

~Alex

 

vtc's = not grounded...don't want the loss of power.

miles on oil change = about 3500.

oil filter = standard oem replacement...gonna use the toyota next.

exhaust leak = just below nissan on the valve cover.

definately have broken studs....but that's not the clack clack clack.

 

chain tensioner?

It's all kind of the same things on the vtc clack. Mine sounds like that when I first start it.

I am not 100 percent on what all goes on when it makes that nasty sound.

 

lol me either...i wish i knew though. i know that i heard the tensioner noise before this....and the vtc's as well...but this is all across the valve cover, or so it seems.

 

thats how mine sounded. i grounded vtc's and the went away. then i had studs pop on both ends of exhaust it sounded like it came back but once i replaced studs i no longer heard

 

Sounds like VTCs and an exhaust leak. VTCs will continually get louder and louder until they are fixed. Mine seem to get noticably louder every single day.

 

gotcha.....i don't know what to do right now....there's so much lol.

repairing all the body damage right now, new paint job coming up, interior remodel.........engine, but which component first?

If i had a complete rebuild kit for the maxima, i would get to a stopping point, pull the engine, and completely rebuild it. (rings, seals, gaskets, cam, tensioner, valves, valve springs, etc. etc. etc.) and port+polish everything intake and exhaust while i was at it......and of course fix the studs.

edit: for the VE of course.

 

For me, engine and performance always comes first! Forget how the car looks. Does it go fast?

 

well, i know that was a rhetoric, but yeah it goes fast!

 

grab a screwdriver, a long one if you have it, the kind with the huge handle. Cup the end of the handle and put it close to your ear, seat the end of the handle to your canal, and put the pointy end on the valve cover above each cylinder, you can pretty easily judge which one is louder than others.

 

yeah, like Aaron said thats definitly VTC+exhaust stud leak (and probably chain tensioner as well). When rebuilding the VTC's definitly replace both upper chain tensioners (guides do not have to be done).

If your engine hasn't been maintained well, then you could have clogged oil gallies leading up to the VTC's. I try to do a motor flush once and a while to keep the engine clean. Make sure you use a brand new (cheap) filter when doing the oil flush, otherwise the original filter won't be able to handle the load and when you finally do a regualr oil/filter change the new filter will clog much sooner.

 

I ran across these the other day : JWT Z32 VTC springs and thought maybe they would fit the VE. They are very similar engines, and I don't hear as much bad about Z32 VTC as I do the maxima's. But Im sure you guys have talked about it before...

~Alex

 

Those don't look long enough to me.

 

Those springs will not work. The VG30DE is a completely different VTC design than the VE30DE.