Why is the valve-train so noisy in this engine?

[OneFord]

I guess I never paid attention so much before until just recently and to be honest the valve-train is pretty loud.

 

[Clint Beastwood]

I guess I never paid attention so much before until just recently and to be honest the valve-train is pretty loud.

:shaking a coffee can full of nuts and bolts:

NAH IT SOUNDS GOOD TO ME!


Honestly, to me, most DI cars sound "broken" to me with all the clacking. When I first got my Fiat Abarth I thought it had stuck lifters

 

[Scotman2]

How many miles on it? Is it a cold start noise that fades away as the engine warms up? Or, is it an issue that becomes noticable as it approaches the oil life meter limit? Do you use lighter weight oil blends like 0W20? Your question lacks background context.

 

[OneFord]

How many miles on it? Is it a cold start noise that fades away as the engine warms up? Or, is it an issue that becomes noticable as it approaches the oil life meter limit? Do you use lighter weight oil blends like 0W20? Your question lacks background context.

I'm using Royal Purple SAE 5W-20

13k on odo

I just never really paid much attention but I did a COBB S3 upgrade in the late fall and didn't have any window down time driving. Now the weather is getting nice I'm just "listening" more than before and realized the valve-train is noisy to me. So I wasn't sure if this is normal for these engines or not.

I'm also installing a Whoosh Hybrid next weekend so my sense are heightened as I listen to the car.

 

[jeffreylyon]

I wondering if you're hearing louder DI injectors rather than the valve-train. I've noticed that the clicking is louder when I'm on-throttle than when I'm off, leading me to believe that it's the injectors.

 

[Plainrt]

My 15 I owned for 75k miles and never thought it was too
Noisy. My 17 is much louder for
Some reason and bothers me
At times.

 

[OneFord]

My 15 I owned for 75k miles and never thought it was too
Noisy. My 17 is much louder for
Some reason and bothers me
At times.

I had a 14 for roughly 47k miles and never noticed.

I have a 17 now and just yesterday had my windows down and was like woah....

 

[DieselMech]

I guess I never paid attention so much before until just recently and to be honest the valve-train is pretty loud.

I was just thinking that on my way to a va appointment. I have an AWR rmm and inserts on the side mounts. I definitely hear some drivetrain noise so I’m doing a trans flush tomorrow to be on the safe side. 75k on mine.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Scotman2]

I wondering if you're hearing louder DI injectors rather than the valve-train. I've noticed that the clicking is louder when I'm on-throttle than when I'm off, leading me to believe that it's the injectors.

There's that too. I haven't seen a 1.6 EB that I felt was noisy in the top end area, yet. I have seen a non turbo 1.6 with about 145 thousand miles that was very noisy on cold starts until the engine is warm.

 

[Clint Beastwood]

There's that too. I haven't seen a 1.6 EB that I felt was noisy in the top end area, yet. I have seen a non turbo 1.6 with about 145 thousand miles that was very noisy on cold starts until the engine is warm.

I now realize mine is not abnormally loud for a DI engine, but with my first DI car the noise was disconcerting

 

[Scotman2]

I now realize mine is not abnormally loud for a DI engine, but with my first DI car the noise was disconcerting

You should have heard an early D.I. Nissan Altima! I thought that engine was going to self destruct. I rented it and drove all around Florida. It was no issue beyond disturbingly violent tapping.

 

[Dpro]

Ya my 2012 Focus was a bit noisey as well. It is pretty much par for the course on DI engines. They just sound like fricken sewing machines.

 

[Intuit]

Idling during warm up the noise can diminish and almost cut out for a few seconds as the ECU transitions between engine operating strategies. Another way to tell that it isn't the valve train, is to rev the engine to a high RPM and cut the ignition. (<-- Do NOT do that on a turbo engine.) On previous vehicle, I drove on a hydraulic roller lifter that had a bad roller. (lost some bearings on one side) The roller flat-spotted and pitted the cam. That did not take long! That kind of mechanical noise is distinctly different. So is the valve clatter you briefly get after an oil change; or lengthy sit. (avoid the clatter by flooring the accelerator, before beginning and during the crank) If you really are getting valve train noise, then something is wrong... and the damage should be measurable if not immediately apparent upon disassembly.

With regard to oil weight, as a general rule, noise on startup means go lower on the first number. Noise after warm up means go higher on the second number. Even though the same numbers on everybody's bottles, oil feel/thickness/viscosity seems to vary between brand and type (mineral/part-synth/full-synth). So some experimentation may be needed in order to find the happy medium for your brand/type/engine/comfort-level. You can mix weights... half 5W and 10W for instance.

 

[M-Sport fan]

Probably coming directly from a dropped lifter in a 250K+ mile LS1 in a 4th gen f body, which you could hear clacking from 4 blocks away, has made me very insensitive to any valvetrain, OR DI injector/pump noise altogether? LOL