rbeggs

I'm experiencing a rattling, scrapping sound seemingly coming from the engine midway between the fan housing and the AC compressor.

The noise is almost non-existent at start up but becomes apparent after warm up.
It has become worse over time. The noise does not go away when the fan and AC belts are removed.

Any ideas?

R. Beggs

Mike J

Could be a number of things

Does the noise sound like chains dragging on a rock or in a washing machine? Could be a chain tensioner. If you removed all the belts (Alternator too?) then its either chains or valves - and valve lifters for example do not typically sound like a scraping sound.

Its definitely not coming from the distributor, right?

Interesting that it get worse when the oil gets hot - does it go away when the engine is revved vs. idling?

Cheers,

Mike

77'3.6vram

Do you have a single drive RS fan/alt pulley conversion?

rbeggs

Thanks for the response. "Chains dragging on a rock or in a washing machine" is not far off. No on the RS fan/alt pulley conversion. Definitely not the distributer. At idle the noise is much less apparent. Revs and higher rpm's make a racket. My mechanic suggested the tensioner idea but said he had never seen a bad one in his experience but that it was a fairly easy thing to replace. I had visions of an engine pull but apparentkly not necessary for the tensioner procedure.

-rb

Mike J

It certainly sounds like a tensioner. They are oil fed, I assume no obvious oil leaks?

Upper left tensioner is fairly easy, the lower right hand one is a bit harder to change. I do agree, they fail rarely. How many miles on the engine?

Cheers,

Mike

AOW162435

So, are you a TROLL?


Andreas

rbeggs

Mike J,

96,000+ on the engine. Runs like a champ. I put FD Stage lll's on recently and the ruckus in back is really interfering with the experience.

-rbeggs