Thread: Help! --> Sound from VC

Hi guys, hoping someone has experienced this sound before that my g20 has started making.

Any help or thoughts are GREATLY appreciated!

The sound is a ticking that is coming from right under the front side of the VC (sounds like possibly right in front of the second plug).
The ticking started a few days ago at about 3000 RPMs in 1st, 2nd and 3rd, then it tailed off at a little above 4000 - But nothing in 4th or 5th.
So i started looking and I noticed that I'd have to replace the VC gasket - Which BTW, is a 2 day wait, unless you want to pay more than $35 at the dealer.

Yesterday though, the rattle gets a little more pronounced, and it now happens in all of the RPM range and every gear. Even at idle.

The FSM suggests either the Hydraulic lash adjuster or the Camshaft (journal clearance or camshaft runout) when the sound is from this location
2000 g20 FSM

So anyways, I'm hoping you all could help. I'm probably going to have to get to the shop if it's more extensive than replacing the camshafts - I had a guy that could help with more in depth repairs/upgrades, but he's kinda AWOL now - but the more knowledge going into a shop, the better.



Here's the Video:
YouTube - ‪g20_Engine_Rattle.MP4‬‏

That def sounds like somthing in the head its hard to tell though but once you take the valve cover off you will def be able to tell what's wrong.

I suggest this VC gasket from rock products. It's made of full silicon(not rubber like most which becomes brittle over time from heat), and it comes with grommets and spark plug tube seals. It's only $29.71 shipped to my door from RockAuto.com using 2 day priority mail. I don't have the latest 5% discount code(I deleted the email ), But it's still $30 and some change. This is the one you want. Just go to their website and select your make/year/model, and it will be on the bottom.(DNJ/ROCK ENGINE COMPONENTS Part # VC673G Includes Grommets and/or Spark Plug Tube Seal)

The knocking sounds like a rocker arm popped out of place. Happened to a friend, and sounded just like that. If it isn't busted you can put it back in place. Hopefully the shims are still able to be found. If this is the case you will have to remove the valve cover, and the camshaft under which the rocker fell out to reset it. It's not really that hard to do this yourself, but if you never have I'd get some help from a buddy that's done it before. The FSM will tell you all she steps and specs to follow. You have the roller rocker SR I'm pretty sure. So, if that's the case I read in a thread before that their valve springs aren't as stiff as most SRs because of the roller rockers need less friction. The rev limit is lower because of that. Excessive revs on stock springs can cause rockers to fall out of place from valve float. Sometimes its bad sometimes not. Definately pull the VC to inspect ASAP and stop driving and revving until you get it fixed. Whenever you hear something like that its time to cut it off so you don't make it worse potentially.

Yeah, that's the one I was waiting on. Got it at the PartsStore tho. The dealer wanted more than that for JUST the VC gasket - no Plug seal, no Grommets.

But this definitely gives me some idea of what I might find when I take the VC off tomorrow (the teardown was put on pause for a grad ceremony)

Well they call them stealerships for a reason, lol. They put whatever markup on the product they want. I've been to numerous dealers, and every one of them had a diff price for the same part. That's why most of us go to Greg V @ Gspec for all our OEM needs and more. His prices are hard to beat, and he ships like lightening.

Good luck man. Feel free to ask questions, I'll help where I can.

Okay, so yesterday morning I took the VC off, and cleaned that up a bit.

I was happy (and a lil bit relieved) to see that everything was seated in place. I tried pushing on the lifters and the adjusters, and those things won't budge.

The first thing that struck me tho, was how dirty the oil and residue are. Now like I said, I hit up the Oil about every 5k, but do ya think that this is from the POS Previous Owner (2 of them, with the car also getting DD from the car lot's owner) going for like what appears to be 20-30k with out a change?
Cuz that shit wouldn't surprise me, given the condition of the other things that I have had to fix that could have been avoided with routine maintenance.

(sorry for the rant. just kinda attached to the g, and it pisses me off a lil)

So anyway, where I got to before some serious storms rolled in and put another pause in the operation, was the clean-up of the cover, and minimal inspection of the cylinder head.
As I said, everything is seated, but I did notice just a little scoring on the cam. You cannot really see it, but you can barely tell with a fingernail (marked in the pic).

But other than doing a visual check on the lash adjuster, I think that doing the other checks that the FSM call for (checking the cam runout and height, cam journal clearance and spring tension rates) might be beyond what I can do.


Here are some pics:

Of the durty insides



The VC after a bit of cleanin:






I don't kno guys, I might just have to put the cover back on and have her towed to a shop. Or maybe I should just pick up good cond. lifters, adjusters, and the cams...?

First thing that comes to mind is a failed HLA. They're very easy to check, and should be bled while out of the head.

You'll need to remove the cams in order to pull the HLA's out and bleed them, so if you're not comfortable doing that I suggest you find someone local to you that know's SR's.

If you loosen the cam caps enough you can slide the rocker arms to the side and get to the HVLAs without removing the cams entirely and without having to re-time the cams. Make sure the cam caps are at the same height or looseness when you rotate the cams to free up the different rocker arms. Don't crush anything. Be careful. (Maybe I shouldn't have said anything?)

sounds a lot like a rod bearing....

Oh, what I was saying is that the FSM says to do measurements on the Lash adjusters, on the lobes of the cam, on the journal bearing, and a spring compression test to measure them.
I don't have any equip. to do any of that.

I wouldn't have any problems taking the cams out even. I use zip ties to keep the gear on the chain and a block to keep the chain tensioned (ghetto, I kno, but JWT even has this on their site for the how to).

But that is good to kno, it may come in handy sometime.