m20 ticking...

[Paukert11]

yeah I think he has a bomb under his hood. lol it could be rod knock, but it would be ticking non stop.

[stroke it]

a ticking m20 is a happy m20. a quiet m20 is on that is burning valves (or m30)

[Bashkimakasf]

The injectors in my m20 are extremely loud but its been like that for the last 100k miles lol

[barry]

I have 530k miles on an original m20 that I change the oil on every 3 to 4 / 20w 50 miles and it sounds loud only when I'm between a wall, I never adjust valves and the sound always stays about the same. This car has always been in the south in high heat areas, not sure if that has anything to do with loud ticking. When I bought the car new it was loud.

[SeriousBusiness]

You can hear the ticking on my M20 a block away, even after valve adjustment. I keep constantly revving it to 7K at freeway on-ramps to try to grenade the motor & be forced into a swap, but that has no effect whatever.

+1

I can't seem to kill my M20 for good. Leaks oil like BP in the Gulf, ticks, taps, rattles, knocks, shakes, smokes, and is eating up cylinder 5 plugs like no one's business. But it still takes anything I can throw at it and seems to beg for more.

[DivineStyler]

I don't think the e30 engine sounds sexy at all... It sounds like a washer and dryer to me, atleast at idle... Once it's running it sounds so purrrrrrty... :)

[bmwstephen]

the valve ticking sounds a lot more soothing than the m54 vanos rattle. sounds like a can of marbles in rattling in a fart can exhaust...

[otto325e]

Piston slap is common too. "dieseling" sound from the top end a bit deeper knock than a valve tick but its completely normal

[E30is90]

I had a loud tick from my M20 for years. Last year I brought it to have a valve adjustment and was told after the adjustment that they couldn't reduce the ticking sound. I continued driving it. This past summer I decided to bring it to another place to look at the valve adjustment and they found that the number 3 exhaust valve stem had been worn down to the keeper and the loud tick was the rocker striking metal against metal. I had the head pulled and disassembled and it was found that the journals were ground down on the camshaft and it actually scored the inside of the casting.

Weeks and $775 later, I have a new head installed and the loud ticking has been replaced with the normal sewing machine sound. When speaking with the cylinder head company I was told that most 885s coming in for rebuild have worn journals after the 20+ year age and miles. Some feel that the design of the oil spray pipe, attached to the head, begins to clog up over time and limits the oil flow. All I know is that the valve stem worn down to the keeper scared the hell out of me...

[gearheadE30]

it's only under hard acceleration? I bet you have an exhaust manifold leak.

[CallmasterIV]

Just adding to E30is90, i got the same sound at the moment. Ticking, almost rattling, more at certain rpms, and really noticable when deaccelerating ro shifting down. Really annoying when in a drive in :-)
On my old block the timing belt broke (tho just 10k miles as per receipt from the prev owner), luckily as i just was pulling out of the car port, so no major damage, besides a shot head.
Took the head from my spares stash, and did basic rebuild task (seals and gaskets, 2-3 valves replaced) as the car is my daily driver and had to spin again like nothgin happened.

Long story short, i managed to get a worn rocker arm back in by not paying attention. (one could hear a click when manually turnign the cam on the head) , but wife around etc..distracted...well..

so my nasty rattling, wasnt resolved by doing a valve adjustment check...its a bad rocker arm....bad enough to make noise...

As i say that, when you play GTA 4 or Vice city...and your car was as good as trash before lighting up in fire...it made almost the same sound :-)

Fix is in sight, im rebuilding a stock b27 for a heart transplant in spring and have a look at that thing again..maybe get a sound recorded...


So here, also, bad rocker arm, exhaust, #2 cyl...



p.s. for the spray pipe...the spare block im workign on...gotta get pictures somewhere, is completely black - burnt stuff all over the place...
guess is : bad fuel, bad oil, silly additives, wrong plugs.... (fixable in my case). If the prev owner bought the cheapest stuff always, no s(l)urprise :-(

[funcrew]

I have 530k miles on an original m20 that I change the oil on every 3 to 4 / 20w 50 miles and it sounds loud only when I'm between a wall, I never adjust valves and the sound always stays about the same. This car has always been in the south in high heat areas, not sure if that has anything to do with loud ticking. When I bought the car new it was loud.

You personally drove 500K on an E30 that you bought new? I believe that officially entitles you to bragging rights.

[nomansland92]

im had 200k miles and mine ticks a lot too haha i've learned to deal with it ive done the vales a few times now and no better. I'm thinking mine is a bad rocker but it will last for the winter