Help! All of a sudden my ‘91 S2 engine has developed a ticking/clattering noise. It sounded like the cam chain was slapping so I covered up the whole area under the hood, pulled the valve cover and watched it run for a minute or so. First off, there’s plenty of oil and the cam tensioner looks fine, keeping plenty of tension on the chain. In fact everything looks like the precision machine it is except that all of a sudden it’s noisy. The sound seems to be the slap of the cam lobes hitting the valve buckets, but why so much noise all of a sudden? The really perplexing thing about it is that the car hasn’t been driven, other than in and out of the garage (I’m doing some body work), for the last two months. The last time I drove it before I started working on it, it ran fine. It actually sounds like there is excessive clearance on one of the valves, but why would this happen all of a sudden? Anybody have any ideas?
Also I don’t have the manual, does anyone out there have the valve clearance specs?
Thanks very much!

Mark Kulczyk
‘91 S2
Central Texas

 

Off hand, broken valve spring? Easy to see. Other thing is a sticking valve.. to fast to see while running. remove the plugs.. crank the engine and watch... with the cover off... Not sure you would be able to see it that way.. but it should be a start..

 

hydraulic lifters might be wonky after sitting for while.

Art

 

When my rod bearing cracked, it first sounded like a light "tap tap tap" sound that progressed into a "whack whack whack" sound after a few miles. If your oil pressure is lower than you expect, you might have a serious problem.

Greg

 

To all you guys out there who answered my post about a noisy engine: Thank you, thank you, thank you! Almost all of you were right, it was the lifters. I just took the car out and slowly drove around the neighborhood and within three or four minutes she started quieting down.. I have my sweet 944 purring again. Thanks again guys!

Mark K.