Engine is a 1.9 KR with JE pistons. When the engine has been allowed to warm up by idling on the drive, a 'whop...whop...whop' noise, at a rate of two or three per second, starts to become audible and is eventually just loud enough to be heard when sitting inside the car. I don't think it's coming from anything ancillary. Seems to be cambelt related. When you watch the white print on the cambelt, it seems to be in time with the revolutions of the top camshaft pulley. It's a rebuilt engine (including the head) and it has one of those adjustable camshaft sprockets. It's the cheaper type that has been made from a VAG sprocket. Trev
Nope, definitely well clear of the plate I have noticed that the belt feels a lot tighter when everything is hot. But I have ensured that the belt isn't too tight when cold, and I don't think I should slack it off anymore. Interesting idea about looking at the tappets. Sorry to sound dumb but what am I looking for? Just rotate the engine by hand, and ensure they just go up and down as they should and none are stuck or something? Presumably I should run the engine first to pressurise the oil, then quickly whip everything off. I'm thinking that the way it only happens when hot is going to make this one a difficult thing to track down. I suppose I could lift each of the bearing caps in turn, too, to inspect those. Trev
I would just visually inpect first - see if one looks different to the others - someone I know recently wrote off a pair of Shrick cams on a VR because they use cheap eurocarparts tappets
It's worth a shot I guess. If anything is wrong in there, it must have left a sign by now. I did wonder whether it's worth putting another tensioner on there first, but to be honest the rate of the noise seems to be at the rotational rate of the camshaft pulley.
did you know there is a special tool (vw 210) for adjusting the tention of the cam belt and it is quite critival a kr belt is adjusted properly,obviously metal expands as it gets hotter so take this into consideration,as a quick guide tho if you twist the cambelt on its lonest section you should be able to twist it with your 1st finger and thumb no more than 90 degrees and no less than 45 degrees this is a quick test and its by no way to do adjust them properly but will give you a rough idea wether its too slack or too tight,i reakon the adjusting pully needs a squirt of maybee wd40 iv known them to make noises before now there made from softer metal than the pullys
Yeah, what I could do is get it hot again when the belt appears tighter, slacken it off a bit more then, and try it. Then regardless of the result I'll re-check the belt when it has all gone cold again. I'll also compare the belt tightness to that on an ABF I have sitting in the garage (one I can figure out how to get the cover off!) and on the wife's 9A Corrado. Anyway - I have got the valve cover whipped off. Shall go and take some photos.
Yeah, good idea about checking against the ABF as the tension of these is not adjustable... Wonder if you can fit the ABF tensioner to the KR as this is the same as the late 9a's and early 9a being the same as a KR... may just need a different size stud? (as above you deffo need the tool for the ABF tensioner - about 7 from VW)
checking against the abf you can do yes but at the end of the day although there similar there totaly diferent in there own right if you follow the quick guide i sent you you cant go wrong,id buy the tool if the belt goes you lookin at an expensive repair,love to see the fotoes tho
Neil, sorry I missed your post earlier. I shall take your advice and obtain the tool. Now I did try to slacken the belt and you can almost twist it by 90 degrees and I know from experience that it shouldn't be any slacker than it is. And the noise is still there. I did take pictures of the cams and tappets - I'll post those up shortly if necessary. But before I do so, I now have some videos(!) taken using my Canon Ixus, and the recordings capture the noise remarkably well. They are just over 3mb each: Fairly long video with engine just idling at 1000rpm. Shorter video where engine is revved. The noise you can hear is quite distinct in those videos. "Clack..clack...clack..." apparently in time with the white print on the cambelt. This noise only occurs when the engine has been left to idle for, say, ten to fifteen minutes, by which point the coolant is well up to temperature. This block has custom JE pistons fitted and so you can imagine the thoughts going around my head The engine has never really been run in properly, aside from idling that I've done on the drive. Unfortunately given the fact that I've had to set it all up on MS, I've had no choice. Trev
did you make sure that the valves went into the head when off cam. if the tappets are too full of oil then it will mean that the valves won't fully retract, and than could hit the pistons.
Not really sure how I would check that, but I did ensure that the tappets went up and down with the lobes.
god iv played this over an over and the only thing i can liken it to is when my lower cambelt cover broke at the very bottom and the belt was slapping the plastic,one other point you mentiond a few times the the niose seems to be when the white bit is at the top but think about the whole belt it will al be in the same position everywhere else at that point as will the alternator belt and some sounds are decieving so whip the alternator belt off and see if it still makes this noise just to rule it out,some noises sound like there comin from one place but come from another,my graphics card is rubbish and i cant make out the full engine has it got a charger and whats the springy thing near the alt mounting bracket
That's the standard G60 spring tensioner that you can see there. It's a 1.9L 16V G60, with the G-lader, alternator, and waterpump all driven via poly belt. I'll try and get the poly belt off once it has warmed up, although the reason I didn't do this before was because I'd then lose the waterpump.
yea but youl only have to run it for a very short time maybe a minit or two well thats opend another tin of worms then i mean it could be anything around that area now we need to do some serious elimination to make 100% sure it is the cam belt section and none of the rest still check the bottom cam guard tho right underneith mine split in half and belt was rubbing it and it sounded like it was coming from the top half of the engine
If you've ruled out obvious stuff, like manifold nuts and bolts not tight, then I'd say you need to run it (briefly) without the aux belts, and if that doesn't work without the cambelt covers. It does sound a bit tappety, but there's another humming noise when it's revved, that could be the cambelt rubbing on the cover, or backplate. On the tappet front, are you confident that the oil pressure is OK? I trust you've got no warning light or buzzer. It can take a long time for tappets to pump up properly. Did you soak them in an oil bath for a day or two before fitting? If you fitted a new oil pump, did you prime it before it went in - plug of vaseline in the pick up pipe and fill it with oil? Having said all that... I have heard that JE forged pistons tend to rattle a bit, especially when cold.
