tapping noise..

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alan s
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Post by alan s »

James,
Have a read of this & see if it sounds familiar.
http://citroenz.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=497
Could I possibly suggest that you try a wrecker/scrapper & see if you can find a car with a reasonably low mileage engine & clean internals & simply buy the complete head as I feel it must be cheaper than buying the new bits. Personally, based on our experience I feel you would have to be unlucky to have bought a car with these things clapped out and would point out that I have a similar noise in my series two BX16V which started after I removed the rocker cover to get it powder coated. Why is it rattling? Well these things have an expensive tappet cover gasket that I decided in my wisdom I would reuse and simply tightened it down with sealer applied with the result, as Shane suggested, that the tappets tap on the cover in my case only when it's cold & just as the accumulator clicks out and which goes away as soon as the engine warms up. So I would suggest checking the clearance there before embarking on an expensive exercise that may be unwarranted. It's conceivable you may simply get away with a new gasket. Here's hoping.[;)]
Alan S
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Post by JamesVTS »

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by alans</i>

James,
Have a read of this & see if it sounds familiar.
http://citroenz.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=497
Could I possibly suggest that you try a wrecker/scrapper & see if you can find a car with a reasonably low mileage engine & clean internals & simply buy the complete head as I feel it must be cheaper than buying the new bits. Personally, based on our experience I feel you would have to be unlucky to have bought a car with these things clapped out and would point out that I have a similar noise in my series two BX16V which started after I removed the rocker cover to get it powder coated. Why is it rattling? Well these things have an expensive tappet cover gasket that I decided in my wisdom I would reuse and simply tightened it down with sealer applied with the result, as Shane suggested, that the tappets tap on the cover in my case only when it's cold & just as the accumulator clicks out and which goes away as soon as the engine warms up. So I would suggest checking the clearance there before embarking on an expensive exercise that may be unwarranted. It's conceivable you may simply get away with a new gasket. Here's hoping.[;)]
Alan S
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
been to my local scrap yard but they only have 1.6 and diesel type. i have someone that will do the tappets replacement for me very cheap :) the only problem is that i have to order those tappets from the dealer.
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Post by uhn113x »

James
Is it worth trying these 'find a part' web sites to which scrappies subscribe? Or sticking ads all over the internet?
Cannot remember - did you check that the cam cover was not hitting anything as Shane sugggested?
alan s
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Post by alan s »

James,
A point I should have asked earlier;
<b>Does your oil pressure fluctuate when the engine is hot or is it lower than it should be all the time?</b>
I ask that based on the experience we had with it (as per the link I referred you to in my posting above,) and it has to be remembered that when these tappets are rattling it's due to the oil squirting out of them; in other words the engine should be losing oil pressure due to them not sealing off correctly. If the oil pressure checks out OK, I would suggest that it must then either be as has been suggested, touching the cover (hopefully) or that the tappets need "burping" and are actually locking up on air trapped inside the inner piston area. (Much less expensive than new tappets but an annoying time consuming job.)
The chances of it requiring a complete new set of tappets is fairly remote as it is not a common fault & is something that is usually created through a number of factors that I outlined in my post I referred you to, and in our case, when the tappets were removed, it was found to be just in certain tappets not in them all so I would be inclined to test all other options first & then remove them & test before flying in & buying a full set.
Another scenario that could bear thinking about is that if the head was off & the mechanic a bit slack, they may have not kept a close check on where these tappets came from & just put them back in anywhere (ie) number 1 may be where # 7 should go & #7 may be where #3 should be & so forth, in which case it will be a case of stripping the head & patiently trying each tappet into each hole & settling for the neatest fit.[:0][:p]
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Post by JamesVTS »

the oil pressure does fluctuate when the engine is hot. let just hope what you say above is right. i got quoted £175 to replace the tappets and changing cambelt which i think is a good price might as well get them replace. anyway will let you guys know if i manage to fix the problem or not.. :)
alan s
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Post by alan s »

James,
I should perhaps clarify the "fluctuation" statement.
It starts a bit under what it should but then as it gets hot, it falls to almost zero and the noise is present to a degree when cold but increases in intensity as the engine and oil heats up.
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Post by VisaGTi16v »

in my zx 16v my oil pressue sits on about 5.5 out of 8 in my zx when cold dropping to around 2 on idle when warm and 4 under load. However when stationary in traffic and when ive been doing autotests its dropped down to 1 and maybe even a bit less which is quite alarming! but then I dont have any tapping noises, well some really faint ones but dont think they are coming from the head but I have had the cover off in the past so could have disturbed something and I didnt use a new seal either hmm
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