[grangalan]

I checked it out, body is nice and clean, a few dings here and there, spoiler loose, but no big stuff.

The motor purrs like a kitten until you push the throttle cable down. It has a pretty loud , tap/clack coming from underneath the valve cover. The exhaust manifold is loose which lets out a pretty decent amount of gases, but i dont imagine that also making the sound which i hear. It sounds very top end and you cant hear it until you hit the throttle. The sound increses in frequency as you get higher in RPM's. Anyone have a clue what it could be before i buy the car? i need a reliable daily driver and i really like this car. But i dont wanna buy something there i have to buy a new engine within a month. Been there done that plenty of times

 

[anarchyx34]

Noisy HLA's are very common on these cars so that may be all you're hearing. However it' usually noticeable at idle too.

 

[grangalan]

well, this is pretty damn loud, ive had noisey HLA's in my second gen, and this is definitely louder than that, unless the lifters are louder in 1st gens.

 

[tyler886]

HLAs can be very noise with the hood open. I would assume its them starting to go out on you. Not a big deal as I'm sure you know.

BUY THIS DAMN CAR ALREADY!

-Tyler

 

[KiNg MaRtY]

how much are you getting it for?

 

[grangalan]

a good deal, lets keep it at that. So anyone have any ideas?

 

[magik8]

Exhaust manifold being loose can cause tapping, I would fix that first. That is generally a time consuming and/or expensive task, I hope you're getting a good deal on this one. Could be an HLA as well, as when the HLAs tap you can hear it down the block. But I'd check that manifold first.

 

[SleepCounter]

a journey of a thousand miles....

Repair exhaust leak like this.

Once that's fixed, you can evaluate any need for HLA fixes.

 

[grangalan]

the threads are fine on the head, its just not tightened on the top left one since the stud was gone and he put in a bolt but didnt wanna tighten it to put stress on the threads.

My concern is more about the clacking sound i hear when i hit the throttle cable. it increasingly gets louder as the RPM's get higher.

no clacking sound is evident otherwise, only during throttle...

 

[lnlogauge]

just an oddball advice, but take off the timing belt cover and make sure everything is sound. Mine ended up being part of the timing belt was shredding off and hitting everything in its path, didnt make a sound on idle though

 

[grangalan]

guess only thing left to do is run a compression check and check under the valve cover

 

[sokarul]

They may of broken some of the valve cover bolts for the cover to be loose.

 

[grangalan]

the cover isnt loose, the turbo manifold has a bolt instead of a stud in the top left corner, he didnt wanna tighten down the bolt because its supposed to have a stud and didnt wanna put too much stress on the aluminum head.

 

[crusty]

You already know the answer, it's the exhaust manifold. WTF is a compression test going to help with?
If you don't want to replace the bolt with a stud (which would be the obvious thing to do), read this carefully. Find a replacement bolt that is 20mm longer than needed to fit the hole. Spin a nut up to the head of the bolt, then screw it into the head (by hand, very little force) until the bolt bottoms out. Now, hold the head of the bolt steady and with another spanner, tighten the NUT onto the manifold. This way you are basicly still using a stud and nut and not tightening a steel bolt into a alloy head.

BUT, IT IS THE MANIFOLD. The clacking sound is the exhaust gasses farting through the gap between the head and manifold. I bet there's a black sooty mark on the head that side of the mani. HLAs would sound at idle, it's the mani....trust me.