Engine clattering?

[tawd77]

Hi, I just bought an 89 camry with the 4cylinder engine. Car has 135k miles. Engine runs really good, but at higher rpms there is a little engine clatter. Do these cars have oiling problems? Think the rockers need adjusted? I always thought when the rockers needed adjusting, you could here it clattering/ticking at an idle. Its quite except for hanging at higher RPMs. Any ideas? Thanks

[Tommy]

run thicker oil and see what happens.

[timebuilder]

Time for a diag from a local tech who can hear the engine.

At your mileage, it's unlikely that you need to re-shim the lifters to achieve the proper clearance.

My engine has over 234,000 miles, has no valve noise, and has had no major work since I bought it over 100k miles ago. That's a good benchmark for these engines. And, that's taking my head gasket oil leak into account that will have me replace the engine with a JDM block soon.

[tawd77]

hydraulic lifters in an overhead cam engine?

[Tommy]

yea? what about it?

[tawd77]

didnt know overhead cam engines used lifters. Usually the rockerarm follower rides directly on the cam

[timebuilder]

Some OHC designs use a shoe that rides the cam lobe, is hinged to the head at one end and controlled by a hydraulic follower at the other end. That's the "lifter."

There are a lot of different designs that use creative methods to keep valve adjustment off the regular maintenance menu.

The last mechanical vale adjustment I performed was on the old 22RE Toyota motor. Most often, the problem was worn parts that made it impossible to make the valve train quiet down, no matter how we adjusted the valves.

[tawd77]

so this engine should need no valve lash adjustment?

[IvanHoe]

Originally Posted by Tommy

yea? what about it?

[Tommy]

Originally Posted by tawd77

didnt know overhead cam engines used lifters. Usually the rockerarm follower rides directly on the cam

First time working on an import huh?

GM/Ford havent really kept up with engineering advancements on engines, been behind for years, just now getting with it.

[timebuilder]

Originally Posted by tawd77

so this engine should need no valve lash adjustment?

You can check it, using the traditional feeler gauge method, but I doubt that you will need an adjustment. If you do, you can check the shim chart and go to the dealer for the shim. There is a special service tool for pressing dopwn on the lifter to remove the shim, but I worked for toyota, and I never had to do that procedure.

I'd still get a local guy to give a listen.

[Tommy]

Dont forget that these engines are inherently noisey anyways. Ive had a freshly rebuilt one sound clattery just as much as one with 250k miles.

What oil are you running in it?

[tawd77]

Im not sure what kind of oil is in it. Its the oil that was in it when i got it. It is a quart low though. I just went and got a new filter, and some 20w50 for it. Maybe that will help...

[Tommy]

lol, 20w50 is a bit extreme.

being low on oil, and probably using some light weight oil could likely be the cause. and like i said, 3SFE is a noisey engine, sometimes it just sounds like its going to die, but actually its fine.

[fredk]

does the noise get quieter when it warms up?

give him a break guys, the ford 2.3 and 2.5 and escort motors have hydro lifters and real rocker arms