loud head noise

[tasnov90]

ok i have a 2002 sunfire with the 2.4 and auto tranny. It has 109,000 miles on it and it was a gift from my girlfriends mom and while she had it and still to this day it has a very loud ticking sound from the head. Iv done some research and some people have had some similar problems but they would say it will tick on a cold start up and go away after reaching normal operating temp. They said it was piston slap and since it is a all aluminum engine that it was "normal". Well lucky me it doesnt go away at all...the tick is constant and it does NOT get louder while driving, some of my friends said they can hear me ticking down the street lol. The car runs fine, no CEL, oil changed every 3k with 10w30. so anyways my question is does anybody have or had the SAME simptoms as i do because i need to narrow my list down on possible causes lol

timing chain/tentioner? bad lifter? clogged oil jets? bad valve(s)? bad valve spring(s)?

 

[Roadrunner]

It could be all of what you just said..but you won't know untill you pull the head off..Just one of those thing that takes a tear down to find the problem..

 

[melsg5]

how about starting by removing the valve cover and seeing if you can pinpoint the noise source

 

[Roadrunner]

how about starting by removing the valve cover and seeing if you can pinpoint the noise source

removing the valve covers involves taking the timing apart and the timing housing..you can't just remove the cover since there is 8 bolts that are behind the cam sprockets holding the 2 housings together .

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[melsg5]

that would have been too easy, give me a V8 any day!