[BlueSedan]

Symptoms:

-First start on cold engine will run like it’s on 5 cylinders.
-Rev up the engine over 3k rpm’s and the engine starts to run normally on all 6.
-Engine starts to make a knocking/ticking noise.

Cause:
Sticky exhaust valve has left open and the piston has hit it.
The exhaust valve is now not straight and it remains to be a little bit stuck open and or not close completely.
As the engine warms up and the revs go up, the vibrations free the valve enough that it starts to make partial sealing that will make the engine run but still have that awful noise.

How to diagnose:
-Leak down test
-Borescope view
-Exhaust paper trick

Can’t be intake valve because it’s not backfiring trough the carb.

Can you drive it as is until you can afford to fix it?
Or will driving it cause further damage?

How much does it cost to do a valve job for only one single valve?

Necessary parts are:
-Headgasket
-Fluids
-One single exhaust valve

[BlueSedan]

Okay when it’s cold, it will eat a little bit of oil and run uneavenly. But after it warms up, it’ll start idling nicely, doesn’t smoke out the tailpipe and runs like it has power. But the small little knock stays at idle.

I opened the oil cap and squirted a little bit of thinner oil on the valves trough the hole and the knock sound started to stop.
So the problem originates from the passenger side valves.

It could be a blocked oil passage.
Is it something that you can free out by pushing a metal wire inside it or do i need to do an engine flush of some kind?

[BlueSedan]

The third gear is a balance shaft for v4 application. My engine is a v6 but it has the same style of setup but only two gears.

I’ll try to pinpoint the noise better..
What i’m also experiencing is that the engine sounds like it’s running on 5 cylinders once it’s warming up. But after it warms up, it runs on 6.. Every spark plug is firing.

Could the valves be sticky?

[BlueSedan]

This noise is driving me insane.

When engine is stone cold: No noise.
When engine is revved up: No noise.
When engine is warm and idles: Makes noise.

Could a spun rod bearing behave like this?

[BlueSedan]

[quote=”Evil-i” post=190403]Have you checked your oil pressure with a direct reading mechanical gauge?[/quote]

Nope. But the oil pressure light stays off. I’ve tested the oil pressure light and it works like it should.
I don’t know what oil pressure these v6’s run at. But if i take the oil cap off, it’ll splash oil out. So i’m sure the oil should recirculate like it should.
Now that i think of it, my v4 engine made the same type of ticking/knocking sound.. I guess it’s just the valves ticking away. Might be a normal feature on these engines as they run on leaded gasoline. (no hardened valve seats)

Here’s an old video how the v4 sound like:

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDVmVyFGB6M[/video]

The v4 also had an idle noise but it ran fine without any problems for 50 years.
The mechanic who installed this engine said that it’s not a noise you should worry about.

I personally think that if it was a rod bearing noise, it would get very very loud as you rev the engine..
This noise only quiets down.

[BlueSedan]

UPDATE:

Here is a video of the sound:

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sIBqSwqLyI&feature=youtu.be[/video]

Is this a noise you should be worried about?

[BlueSedan]

[quote=”Evil-i” post=190343]If the water pump pulley is flopping around, maybe it’s just a case of loose pulley bolts. Have you tried tightening them?

As for the clacking sound, I think your engine has a hydraulic timing chain tensioner. You might be dealing with a worn tensioner shoe, low oil pressure to the tensioner at low rpm, a worn timing chain and timing gears, or some combination of those conditions. (I’m thinking that the clack might be the chain making contact with the timing cover.)[/quote]

This information is helpful for some but not in my case because i’m missing a chain completely:

[BlueSedan]

Or the water pump fins making contact with the inside of the housing.

Easiest test is to take the belt off and run it without it.

What also could be possible is valve tapping noises.
It’s a cast iron head and there are no hardened valve seats. This runs on leaded gasoline. It could be 50 year old valves worn out enough to start making noises..

Everything is possible as these question mark engines are always a mystery before opening them. Schrödingers block?

[BlueSedan]

[quote=”Evil-i” post=190321]I’m going to assume that the car is the one you have in your photo. Looks like an old Ford Taunus, and probably has a V4 pushrod engine?[/quote]

Yes, but it’s now a v6 pushrod engine. The v4 is fine.. But it’s sitting on top of a pallet now.

Back on topic:

I used a block of wood to listen for the noise, it’s not coming from the bottom, it’s coming from the front of the engine.
I did the old spark plug con rod test and confirmed that it’s not a con rod bearing issue.

The noise comes only when idling. Rev it up and the clack disappears.
The engine runs like a dream and it’s pretty happy. It’s more of a clack/tick instead of a knock.

What i did found was that the water pump pulley is wobbling a lot.
Like in this image i found from google:

The water pump isn’t leaking, it’s just wobbling. The temp seems to be at middle so i’m not worried about it.
New pump is over a 100 bucks shipped from germany. And the pump is a massive massive part..
Here’s a picture:

I’m going to replace it probably next year.

[BlueSedan]

[quote=”nightflyr” post=190302]Without seeing and hearing it..
My thought is worn bearings causing lower oil pressure when idling.

P.S. there appears to be no audio on your video[/quote]

Okay, what i’ve found is:

When the engine is stone cold. It does not make any sounds at all. It just idles normally.
Once the engine warms up, the knock comes. The knock is only heard in idle. If you rev the engine up, it disappears after 1k rpm.
The knock always stays the same volume, does not get louder when rpm’s get up.

The water pump has a little play and wobble after i checked it. But i’m not sure if it’s the water pump.
I’m suspecting that it could be lifter related because when i rev it too quickly, it tends to backfire trough the carb a little.
I really doubt that a water pump bearing would make a noise that mimics a hammer hitting a cast iron block sound.

I’m still going to double check if it could be rod bearings by putting a large piece of wood on the oil pan and listening trough it.

[BlueSedan]

It kind of sounds like this:

So i’m going to check the water pump next. Just in case.

[BlueSedan]

Meh, i think i’ll just throw a bigger engine in and either rebuild the old one if it’s any good or make it into a coffee table.

[BlueSedan]

[quote=”Evil-i” post=186900]We didn’t have the Ford Taunus in North America, so I’ve never seen one in real life. From what I remember, they were pretty popular in Europe.

From your photos, it seems the location of the muffler is unusually far forward. It seems like it’s located under the floor of the passenger compartment, maybe even as far forward as under the feet of the front seat occupants. Just guessing here, but maybe the third internal pipe is a remnant of double-wall exhaust tubing construction. The double-wall construction, and the dead air space between the pipe walls, might have been meant as a form of insulation to slow down the transfer of exhaust heat to the cabin floor, for the comfort of the occupants.

Now, as for getting the old hacked-up pipe out of the tail pipe. You could try spraying penetrating oil into the joint between the pipe walls and let it soak for several hours, preferably overnight. If you are feeling more destructive, you could try hammering a screwdriver into the joint at several points around the circumference, and wiggle the screwdriver around a bit. Doing so might eventually release the bond between the pipe walls, but it could also wrinkle and crease the outer pipe, making it difficult to get a gas-tight seal when the new muffler is installed. To me, it looks like the flared joint section of the tailpipe is already damaged and compromised.

For a slight increase in expense, maybe the easiest and most effective method of fixing things would be to cut the entire joint off the tailpipe and have a muffler shop fabricate a short length of appropriately flared slip-fit connector pipe between the tailpipe inlet and muffler outlet.[/quote]

Thanks for the response!

Yes this is a well known european ford made in germany. It was competing with the VW bug that made only 22 hp.. While this ford made 70.. So you know that it was pretty much sought after car back in the day as it was a cheap economic car for the working man..

Yes the muffler is called the “middle muffler” and it’s connected to the exhaust headers in the front and it’s located under the front passenger seat. It does have a heatshield and two muffler hangers.. You need a muffler hardware to connect it to the rubber bushings. The muffler is slip joined to the headers and the rear pipe.

I pretty much got fed up with this pipe and i just used a hacksaw to cut the rear pipe and a grinder to cut the front pipes off from the headers.
Sure it’s not going to be museum quality because it will have a piece of pipe with two clamps on the rear pipe but i just wanted it done in the weekend..
It was just too much trouble to deal with.

Hey, have you ever heard a V4 engine with straight pipes? Well now you have:

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V18K5PpO8GE[/video]

[Author]

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