Tried the rev at 3k for 5 min. Seemed a bit quieter. Tried another 3 min and still sounded the same after the 5 min check. Decided to give the valve medic a shot. No difference whatsever after driving it. My next move is to change out the oil now that I have this blend of oil and solvent in my engine.

My question is (and I know this will be heavily biased), what oil should I use in a engine that has 225k on it? I honestly think it is not pumping up the lifters enough and a fresh oil change might just help considering the oil in it is 14 months old and now has solvent in it.

 

You may just have a collapsed lifter and it just happened to fail when it did.

 

Valvoline VR-1 20w50 non-synthetic. Its cheap, and has a decent amount of phosphor zinc in it. There are a lot of other great oils too - but this is always on the shelf and does decently. If you are rich, buy some Lucas break-in additive. It's a high zinc additive.

I've had several 944's and 928's do this on me. Did you swap the order of the lifters in the bores accidentally? What repair were you doing?? just a timing belt?

If you put your hand over the exhaust and get smooth pulses against your hand with no back suction or anything, the valves are right, its just a sticking lifter. You can check the intake valves with a vacuum gauge and make sure you are getting a steady needle there too.

You can also try pulling the spark plugs and filling with pan with diesel fuel, and just free cranking with the starter (no fuel pump on) - that will do a great job cleaning things and with no load won't hurt the motor. I fixed a 928 that way (928s hold 8 quarts of oil too so diesel was a good choice to fill it up on).

 

At 225k - try filling the crankcase with diesel and free spinning with no plugs, then cheap Oreilly brand for a minute or two, then flush again and fill with your VR-1 Valvoline see if that fixes it. Sounds like debris in a lifter - you can always pull the cam cover / carrier off - and flush these things in an ultrasonic bath. Not as much work as it seems.

 

Since the car was sitting so long, I think patience will pay off. It will feel good to change the oil, but I'm still betting the lifter will get quiet soon. Keep on it. Mine took quite a while. If the noise completely goes away at 3K RPM, you're getting close.

 

Well I bought the oil and filter yesterday, for anyone who sees our weather. We had Monsoon rain and I did not get a chance to change it out. Supposed to be drier today so will try another attempt at changing the oil.

 

That's entirely a possibility. I know that one of my 951's has a collapsed lifter right now too, and the noise is similar.. But definitely much more prominent against the ambient engine noise than what I was hearing in your initial video. So I'm not sure it would be that. But it is entirely possible.

 

Perhaps that detergent is worth a try....I will say, my 89 had 44k on it when I bought last year the valves were making little noise. Put in fresh brad Penn oil, and it is much quieter. There is credence to the above reply on flat tappets and proper lubrication.

 

Well, its fixed! I have to say I am a little disappointed in all of you in spotting a rookie porsche mechanic. I also blame Audi for using the exact opposite pattern on the crank timing gear. I installed the crank pulley backwards. This did 2 things. 1 it did not torque down the sleeve for the oil pump drive properly. 2 it allowed my timing belt to crawl out and start contacting the crank balance belt drive. It was a dead giveaway for my friend/fellow mechanic at porsche. Somehow I also mistimed the engine by 2 teeth. By some miracle I did not do any damage. We fixed the timing and the crank drive and TADAA!! no noise.

I did try the oil change route with the VR1 oil and it made no difference. This of course put me in panic mode! After I decided to take it to my dealer where I work which is also a porsche dealer. I will say, I feel for all of you that do not have the connections I have working at a Porsche/Audi dealer. It is handy to have the manuals, special tools, and several techs with the knowledge to walk through this.

Thank you for all the advice!!

 

Lucky save!

Online advice is obviously worth what it costs, but you mentioned 3.5 bar oil pressure, and 5 bar when revved, which is perfectly normal, or even above average. You also mentioned in your 1st post that you "triple checked" the timing marks.

Nostradamus would've stuggled with this diagnosis online.

 

LOL

 

That second video sounds like my brother's taurus SHO!

 

Which is why it was so difficult for even seasoned Porsche techs to spot.
Until we really looked at my engine we did not notice it.

I was of course joking about the diagnosis online.

 

Thanks Brad. I just did a WP, seal, timing belt myself and things just weren't running right afterwards. It wouldn't start nicely but would idle fine afterwards and there was a louder than normal ticking. Saw your fix, went and check and sure enough I did the same thing you did, and I watch Van's video several times as well.

 

If it helps one person it was worth it. I think Van's video is spot on but since he did not go into detail about the oil seals it should be noted somewhere that this can happen. Conventional thinking for a Audi tech is the opposite. Flat edge on the crank pulley goes towards the block to protect the belt from the engine itself.

I have been driving my 944 all week and it is running the best it ever has. Having power steering again is priceless!!