Loud intermittent ticking ... It's back! Now with more videos and photos.

[mike.bmw]

3 folks at RRT listened to it and agreed it's lifter noise. Thanks for everyone's suggestions and help!

[jaredmac11]

Without hearing it and not being there... just given that you're saying its coming from the valve cover... have you considered it being lifter tick? Try putting in top-end lubricant and see if that resolves it for the short term.

[mike.bmw]

Bring it to the College Park meet, we'll diagnose it.

I will try to make it back there for another meet sometime soon!

[roguetoaster]

Bring it to the College Park meet, we'll diagnose it.

[mike.bmw]

Still have a fan shroud? (did the e30 even get one?)

Motor mounts good?

The fan hitting something can make a gawdawful racket, and if
the engine's moving around, it'll be intermittent...

all I got,

t

Fan shroud is still in place. It isn't making contact, but re-checking motor an transmission mounts is a good idea. Thanks!

The sound definitely sounds like it's internal to the motor. It would be great if it was something simple like an exhaust leak, but the intermittent behavior and no correlation to whether the engine is hot or cold makes me think it's not an exhaust leak.

[TobyB]

Still have a fan shroud? (did the e30 even get one?)

Motor mounts good?

The fan hitting something can make a gawdawful racket, and if
the engine's moving around, it'll be intermittent...

all I got,

t

[mike.bmw]

I've been hearing a loud intermittent ticking noise at idle. It increases with RPM and will fade away past 3K RPM. Generally I hear it when I'm idling at a stop light, but as I said it's intermittent so I don't hear it all the time. The noise is similar to two shot glasses being smacked together. It's not injector tick as it's much louder than that. It's very hard to pinpoint the noise as it only comes on ~30 seconds at a time. At first I thought it was coming from the valve cover, but it seems almost louder when I'm under the car (on ramps).

I'm taking this to the shop on Monday as I've run out of ideas and skill to diagnose this. I'm guessing it could be a bad lifter, worn oil pump, or bad oil pressure relief valve. I'd like to hear what the M42 experts think.

Here's some more, possibly relevant information:
- '91 318is w/ 141K miles.
- Timing guides and tensioner replaced last year, timing gears looked fine at the time.
- Upper and lower oil pan gaskets replaced last year.
- No oil leaks! Car doesn't burning any oil.
- Oil filter housing gasket + o-ring replaced (as well as the engine mess under the intake) within the last 10K miles.
- I've used both Rotella T6 5W-40 and Mobil 1 15W-50 oil.
- This seemed to go away over the winter, so perhaps it has something to do with outside temperature?
- It doesn't matter if the car has sat for 3 days or I've been driving for 3 hours. The sound will come and go regardless of the engine being cold or thoroughly warmed up.

Thanks!