thirdgenbird

Get us pictures of where you think the sound is strongest. If you can, try and get a HQ video and bring it with you this week.

Lilja

If you have a bad rod or crankbearing the sound wont change from pulling wires, the engine is still spinning. But your sound isnt a bad rod or crankbearing, its lifternoise.
On my 951 I had a similar sound althou not as loud. It never got quiet, not after changing oil or driving it for hours. On my early 944 I also had a similar sound, but after having changed oil and driven it for a few hours it stopped. It did come back again when coldstarting it but went quiet after running it hot.

On your car thou I dont think any of your lifters are getting oil at all, so it wont help to keep it running. If I were you I would pull the camtower and inspect all the oilpassages and the lifters. But all the lifters in diesel over night and then drop them in oil for a few hours and reinstall everything and make sure you get the camtower gasket on right so it doesnt block the oilpassage.

Edtay

Today's developments:

Decided that the exhaust should come off (Exhaust sound was annoying). When the headers came off something became apparent:

The Header (nr 1):


The Gasket itself:


Then this was the gasket on nr two:


So, the second gasket may be showing that i have a leak. Yet the oil on the gasket and header needs to be taken care of before its back on the road. Hope this is the cause for the tapping. If not, the cam box has to come off anyways.

arinbrown

Did you get it solved? I'm currently dealing with a similar issue on an '83 944 NA.

Just pulled the cam tower to inspect...

thirdgenbird

He is in process.

Mueller944s2

Mine sounded a lot like this when the crank snapped in half. Have you dropped your oil to check for copper?

mytrplseven

Well, you definitely need to secure the exhaust with new gaskets. The oil on the one gasket: was it a front or rear gasket? that would indicate where on the motor the oil leak is. Next if it were me, I'd line up the TDC mark on the bellhousing and then pull the rubber plug on the distributor and see if the timing marks are lined up. If they are, then I don't anticipate an issue with valve interference. Next, I agree that pulling the cam tower and soaking the lifters in diesel and then re-assembling with the oil you have in the car. Make sure that your oil is topped off. It usually takes a hair over 6 qts when changing oil and filter. While the tower is off, see if you can ensure that oil is getting through all the galleries to each lifter. This can be done with an air hose placed at the oil input side of the tower and checking to see that air comes out of each lifter recess in the tower. Coat the lifters and the inside of eacy gallery liberally with motor oil before reinstalling the lifters. that should assist in putting the tower back on by keeping the lifters from falling out. I usually also hold a big piece of cardboard over the lifters while I tip the tower back over and laying it on the head. Good luck in getting beyond this. I know it's frustrating, but sometimes the challenge is worth the reward of fixing it.

Edtay

Cam box came off, swapped lifters from old motor (after sitting in 20w50 for a week), put everything back together and it sounded like "death" or "cheap Chinese plastic gears" according to my buddy and this was before the motor fully kicked in. There was no copper in the pan or at least that i could tell. Im thinking my sprocket is retarded one tooth. Sunday I will get the motor to TDC and see where the cam tdc mark is. I replaced the Cam box seal cuz the leak looked like it came from that region (it was cylinder nr 1). Im really close to saying screw this project, ive been at it for over a year...

arinbrown

We got the cam tower off, and the lifters out of our '83 tonight... 6 of the lifters "spring in" if we push on them and 2 of them won't (front and rear ones)... So I'm thinking that's our issue... Planning to soak them in diesel over night to see if that will help... Otherwise we'll pull some out of an old donor motor tomorrow.

I would agree it sounds like your cam gear may be off a tooth.

Mueller944s2

Not sure if somebody mentioned this or not, but did you check the valve springs closely? Also, how's the oil pressure compared to normal? If you're still stumped after going through everything I'd cut open the old oil filter and see what's in there. If you spun a bearing damage can escalate really fast. When my crank broke in half it ground the bear to dust...literally. Oil was caked onto the piston in that cylinder #3 and the exhaust valves in the same cylinder had an oily sludge on them that the others didn't have. That's kind of a worse case sorta thing, I can guarantee it's not the crank, but it may be worth checking the bearings. Also, an engine stethoscope may be useful in narrowing down the problem area.

Edtay

When i pulled the old cam tower 7/8 wouldnt budge what so ever. On the set i swapped in, all 8 moved but one was a little more difficult than the others. I did end up taking my oil pan off, since my mechanic said it was the crank smacking the pick up tube... When the pan was off i didnt see anything that jumped out as bad or problematic. I didnt look at the valve springs but what are the chances of breaking one without using the motor in over a year? The donor car was just dandy on the drive home (besides the rubbing rear tire). Yet during the swap something changed and now this problem is there.

william_b_noble

are you sure the clutch is bolted on properly? I had a sound like that from a clutch hitting the bell housing (broken crankshaft, it turned out - not a 944 by the way). could also be something in the drive shaft - does it persist if you press clutch? with a stethoscope, where is the sound coming from - use a piece of tubing if no stethoscope