(FIXED) Need help diagnosing engine noise (video in replies)

[dice2012]

Fairly new e30 owner here. My paranoia regarding engine noise is steadily increasing every time I listen to my car, and I was wondering if someone could help. When I started the car up and looked at the video I took for the cold start, I realized there was some loud ticking noise, and it would increase with rpm when cold. At around 2.5k+ rpm the noise couldn't really be heard. When the car was warmed up, I don't think I could really hear the noise anymore (I have a video of the engine bay when it was warmed up). Just want to know what that might be. Not sure if it is related to the valve/lifter tick, I used a tempo tapper/beat tapper and found that when it was idling at (if I remember correctly) ~0.9k rpm cold, it would happen at a rate of around 0.45k bpm (Don't know if this makes sense or helps determine anything).
I've been reading the ticking noise could be due to water pump bearing but I can't find any videos of what that sounds like, and I don't know if or how I could test that. Also have been told it could be valve clearance and ticking from that.
I have some videos of the car running but I'm having problems adding them here due to file sizes, so I'll get videos tomorrow when I take it to get inspected with lower quality video in hopes to reduce file size. Would anyone be able to tell me what I should record? I don't know if I should record from the exhaust or from the engine bay with hood up, I just don't know what people need to be able to tell what's going on (or if that would even help) so just let me know. I am a noob and I would like to learn.
Any advice or help is welcome and appreciated. Videos to come once I can figure out how to post those(and once I figure out what videos are helpful).
Edit: video posted in replies
Edit 2: I seemed to have fixed it by doing a valve lash adjustment to 0.01” (PO had the valve lash clearance set to 0, as in the eccentric was always in contact with the valve. Very bad) making sure the nuts are tight enough and won’t come loose, and then did an oil change to a slightly heavier weight (PO used something like 10w(I forget the number after the w) and I changed it with 20w50 Castrol GTX). These are just what worked for me, if it doesn’t work for you, or you break something trying to do what I did, don’t come after me. Hope this helps someone in the future though

[cheffy30]

which e30 do you have? if the valves are out of line the m20 can sound like a "sewing machine" they can be adjusted easily with some basic knowledge. sent from hell using Tapatalk

[dice2012]

which e30 do you have? if the valves are out of line the m20 can sound like a "sewing machine" they can be adjusted easily with some basic knowledge. sent from hell using Tapatalk

1990 325i 4dr. I'll post some videos of it tomorrow to show what I'm talking about, I'm hoping it's just the valves and not any knocking.

[cheffy30]

I have the same model. purrs with 302k sent from hell using Tapatalk

[dice2012]

Got a few videos this morning, only one that would send to my computer was this one. Once it was warmed up completely the noise was pretty much gone. Maybe if I listened to it a bit I could faintly hear it, but very hard to notice after that. Hope this helps. If not I have a few others I took, so I can try to upload those too.

I posted a video on reddit and someone said they had the same sound and it was low oil pressure, could that be what's going on? I haven't checked under the valve cover, gonna hopefully pull that off this weekend. Might change the oil and pull the pan to check out if anything feels loose on the bottom end.
Again, any advice helps, I lack the knowledge needed to diagnose this right now.

[varg]

Valve adjustment time imo. A youtube video is not a diagnosis with a stethoscope but it certainly sounds like top end noise to me, and the cam spinning at half of crank speed, a noisy rocker would tap at half of engine rpm. I'd do the valve adjustment and check the condition of the rockers and eccentrics before going through the trouble of pulling the pan.

[dice2012]

I appreciate the advice! Very reassuring to hear that. I'll pick up feeler gauges this week and change the oil (needed to do that anyways) and then check the noise after that. If that doesn't work, I might bring it to a euro car mechanic nearby (specializes in BMWs) and see what they think. Thank you! I'll keep this updated. Hopefully nothing terrible is happening to the engine.

[dice2012]

Valve adjustment time imo. A youtube video is not a diagnosis with a stethoscope but it certainly sounds like top end noise to me, and the cam spinning at half of crank speed, a noisy rocker would tap at half of engine rpm. I'd do the valve adjustment and check the condition of the rockers and eccentrics before going through the trouble of pulling the pan.

Adjusted the valves yesterday. After pulling the valve cover, I realized that whoever had taken care of valve adjustments had no idea what they were doing. The eccentrics were so close to the valve, that when the cam lobes were down, there was absolutely no play with the rocker arm. The valve clearance/lash was definitely close to 0mm. Luckily enough, no rocker arms were broken, cam lobes seemed to be good, eccentrics did not seem too bad. After redoing adjustment (albeit it's probably a bad adjustment, waiting to get a spring tool) to 0.01", I popped on the gasket, torqued everything down, and as far as I can tell the original sound is gone, and the typewriter sound is now here(might make the clearance a tad bit tighter, I think I did it a little too loose). Used a stethoscope on the top and bottom, and it seems like the only noise I can hear is the rocker arms on the top end and what I think is just echo from the rocker arms on the bottom end. Does that add up?
Also whoever did the valve gasket coated the entire gasket in sealant. I probably spent 2 hours just pulling rubber out of the head. Rocker shaft plugs were absolutely covered in the stuff, looked like it was almost touching the cam sprocket. They even coated the studs and stud nuts in it. Cleaned up almost all of it and ended up looking so much better. Ordered the rocker shaft plugs from the dealership and should come soon.

But now I have more questions, are there any tips for getting sealant off of the metal, how do I remove the plugs, do I need to use sealant on the new plugs, and also, what should I use for new valve cover nuts? I ended up wearing the outside of one down trying to remove it because of the sealant, and want to replace all of them anyways since they look really old and gross.

[varg]

If it sounds good and nothing was broken or worn I think you're good to go. It's going to tick, I don't bother going tighter than factory spec when I do a valve adjustment. As for the plugs, I put sealant on the rocker shaft plugs, not a ton of it but some. I usually just use a scraper to get it off of the mating surface. And nuts, whatever fits from the hardware stores. I'm still using the factory nuts that look old and gross.

[ADEN]

My experience with the same sound as your video and it was piston slap (In your video there was fast ticking (Valves too loose) and a slow ticking (Pison slap).I lived with it for 6 years till i decided to do a complete rebuild.

[dice2012]

If it sounds good and nothing was broken or worn I think you're good to go. It's going to tick, I don't bother going tighter than factory spec when I do a valve adjustment. As for the plugs, I put sealant on the rocker shaft plugs, not a ton of it but some. I usually just use a scraper to get it off of the mating surface. And nuts, whatever fits from the hardware stores. I'm still using the factory nuts that look old and gross.

Ended up removing the rear plugs but couldn’t manage to remove the front ones. Figured they looked good enough and aren’t leaking any oil yet so I’ll replace them when I have time to take the timing cover off. Also the front plugs have enough excess sealant from PO that they aren’t leaking any oil.
I found m6 bolts at a hardware store and they seem to be working well, and they were a lot cheaper than buying OEM, that’s for sure.
I had to do valve adjustment 3 mornings in a row the past few days. Every time I left, it sounded great, and when I came back from driving, the sound came back. Turns out the intake eccentric nut for cylinder 4 kept loosening up. After doing my final valve adjustment, making sure to wrench the nuts tight enough that they wouldn’t come loose, as well as an oil change to 20w50 instead of 10w40(might have been 10w30 or something I forget, it’s what PO used), the car sounds great and drives so much better!
Thanks for the help and input everyone. Seems that my problem has been fixed! (For now)