Hi everyone, long time no post. I got buried under a mountain of dubious old cars and have only just emerged.
Anyway... Mk1 Golf GTI, 1588cc, 83,000 miles, solid (i.e. non-hydraulic) cam followers. When I bought the car, the cam belt was too tight (whining noise) so I slackened the tension slightly. Now the whining is gone, but instead I have a metallic rattle at around 2150-2250 rpm. Doesn't seem dependent on load, and only appears within this very narrow speed range.
My first thoughts are - excess camshaft end float, or cam bearings worn oval causing the cam to move up and down. Anyone come across either problem on this engine and, more importantly, is there an inexpensive cure?
One other thing - the oil pressure light takes about a second to go out from a cold start, and there's a noticeable rattle until it does so. I changed the oil and fitted a genuine VW filter, but no difference. It's so long since I last owned an early GTI that I can't remember whether this is normal behaviour for these engines - comments please.
Many thanks
Richard
Richard Hall
bangernomics.tripod.com
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usual technique is to ignore. Right rattly engines these but they don't seem to mind
Have you tried a new cambelt tensioner. I tried hard to distinguish the endfloat from the tensioner (noise wise) but could not. turned out both were noisy but both masked by the alternator!!!
;-)
now the noise is masked by tappet rattle
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Hi again Richard,
Drew is right, these engines are 'rattly'.
Mk 2 Golfs are notorious for wearing out hydraulic tappets - is the noise particularly loud on start-up? Maybe this is what you are hearing?
When the tappets are wearing out the noise is worse on start-up and gradually gets worse until it happens all the time.
Cheers,
El Dingo (Martin).
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he's got a non-hydraulic cam shaft
so the rattle might be incorrectly gapped cam follower shim thingies (I know what I mean)
check your valve clearances
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I've got a similar problem with a 1040cc Polo. Engine starts quietly and revs to about 3000rpm nicely. Then it sounds like 'valve bounce' - but the engine keeps revving and the noise just gets louder.
Any suggestions?
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Sorry, should have mentioned - hydraulic tappets.
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Richard,
Doesn't this engine have that oil gallery with removeable plugs at either end...running under all the cam bearings??
If this is the layout I'm thinking of the oil feeds are often full of debris meaning one or more cam bearings and/or tappets are starved and a cam lobe could well be right out of profile and tap like hell.
I remember cleaning one out on an 1800 with pipe cleaners, wire, petrol and finally scalding water/fairy liquid (head stripped and off the car...obviously)
David
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Richard, Due to the very narrow band that you have the noise I would think it is pinking. Tis rpg is where the advance comes in thus the pink. You could back it off to test it but I found it needed a lot of static retardation to mute it. If you disconnect the Vacuum you will prove the point. Check you have not got a broken sping in the distributor or at least check the advance curve. Peter
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Thanks very much everyone for your suggestions. Since I posted my original message I have fitted an oil pressure gauge, with the sender on the oil pump. I've got 45 psi at 2000rpm, engine hot, so no problems there. I'm now pretty sure that the problem is due to a blocked oil feed in the head somewhere. If I start it from cold and let it idle, I can hear the rattle come and go, until the oil warms up enough to circulate properly - sounds uncannily like faulty hydraulic tappets, but this engine doesn't have them... So I'll probably have the head off and try cleaning out the passages as per David's advice.
Peter - I've had the pinking problem with a Golf 1800 before, and ended up running it with the vacuum advance disconnected altogether. I don't think that's the problem here - doesn't sound quite right for pinking - but it could of course be a combination of pinking and bearing rattle... Aaahrghhh! What have I got myself into?
Richard Hall
bangernomics.tripod.com
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Hi Richard, might be as well to do any recontidioning work with the head off as well, like guides, springs and stem seals.
I doubt (could be wrong of course) your rattles are caused by pinging, as pinging would usually be dependant on load...
Of course when the head is off you will clean the compustion chamber which will reduce tendency to ping.
I had some problems with rattling which turned out be the water pump, on the 1800 engine.
I just pulled off the water pump belt and started the engine,
which was then quiet, nice easy cheap way of proving that out.
Also had to do the (hydraulic)tappets a few years ago, rattle was worse whe engine is cold, and when very hot as well.
You could try an oil flush, might get rid of the gunk, and save you lifting off the head.
Also some early engines didn't have an oil splash guard, if you don't have one get one, it reduces oil consumption.
best of luck
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Hi everyone. I a driving a vw fox the same as golf mk1, the problem I am having is the noise from the cam that is turning the distributor. Just at the beggening actually on the wheel. Any suggestions please.
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