funny noises

[dugdog99]

i've noticed a few funny noises coming from my car, if anyone knows what these might be i would appreciate some help. first of all, there is a ticking noise coming from the engine. you can hear the engine ticking with the hood down. it seems to be the loudest on the front of the engine. i took the valve covers off and looked at the cams, so i'm sure it's not the cams. my car is a 98 with only 38k miles.

the other sounds i've noticed are with the tape deck. i don't have the cd changer, so i run my cd player through the tape deck all the time. there is a constant ringing in the sound system that increases with volume level, and it only happens when a tape is being played. the other noise is a whirring sound that seems to be independant from the volume, but dependant on the revs. for a while i thought the sound was from the engine, but with the tape deck off, there is no sound. these are trivial problems, but i think that the whirring sound is really strange.
any of you experience these things on your car?

 

[stephen newberg]

How are you sure it is not the cams? The sound you describe is the classic noise of one of the cam sprockets having slipped. Until you are sure this is not the problem, it would be adviseable not to run the motor. I would suggest getting towed to the dealership for a check.

A couple of other things can cause a clicking soft of noise, but most are not so apparent from inside the car or with the hood down. An exhaust leak can make a clicking sort of sound, and so can a valve lash problem.

I do not know enough about car stereo to be really useful, but the whirring that is in time with engine revs would be EMI feedover from the spark plugs. I do not think you can play with the wires much on our car because of the type, but you might be able to do some ferrite core shielding for the wires between your tape player and the CD player that is plugged into it. You can buy these inductance preventers at electronics shops. The constant ringing sound is likely a feedback problem of some sort, due to resistance mismatch between what you are plugging into the car system and the player you are using. It could prove very difficult to isolate and alter.

pax, smn

 

[Mac98SHO]

Our injectors are noisy ...... they tick and can me heard with hood down just because of the way the accoustics are on this car. I woud verify the cams again by removing chain tensioner and seeing if sprocket is loose.

Now is it the CAMS ... some will say yes others will say no..... doenst hurt to check though. I have 112K on my 1998 SHO and have yet to weld my cams. I will in the future........

<small>[ January 14, 2003, 10:02 PM: Message edited by: Mac98SHO ]</small>

 

[MilTownSHO]

Mac98SHO:


Now is it the CAMS ... some will say yes others will say no..... doenst hurt to check though. I have 112K on my 1998 SHO and have yet to weld my cams. I will in the future........

To bad everyone doesn't have your luck...I keep trying to get my mom to weld her cams on her 98 but she keeps telling me she doesnt have an extra 600 bucks lying around. Not to put a curse on you but you should get those welded soon or maybe it someday will be to late...you might not get the clicking warning!

 

[dugdog99]

thanks for the replies. i figured the problems with the tape deck were just electrical interference, i'll just have to get a disk changer when i get the money. i took another listen to the engine, the ticking is really not that bad, what's really making the noise is the water pump. when you're next to the front drivers side wheel you can hear it pretty well. anyone have water pump problems or noises? it didn't make that much noise when i got it, i think it's getting progressivly worse.
as for the cams, i took a good look at them, the teeth on the inside of the gears are still lined up with the marks they made on the shaft when it was assembled. the sound really seems to be coming from along the feul rail. could this be noise from the injectors?
after i get my taxes paid, i think i'll be going down to atlanta to get my cams welded.

 

[Dave97SHO]

dugdog99:
thanks for the replies. i figured the problems with the tape deck were just electrical interference, i'll just have to get a disk changer when i get the money. i took another listen to the engine, the ticking is really not that bad, what's really making the noise is the water pump. when you're next to the front drivers side wheel you can hear it pretty well. anyone have water pump problems or noises? it didn't make that much noise when i got it, i think it's getting progressivly worse.
as for the cams, i took a good look at them, the teeth on the inside of the gears are still lined up with the marks they made on the shaft when it was assembled. the sound really seems to be coming from along the feul rail. could this be noise from the injectors?
after i get my taxes paid, i think i'll be going down to atlanta to get my cams welded.

Mine looked fine too, although you could slide one of the sprockets back and forth....

 

[rjensen]

you'll never forget death when you stare it in the face...you'll never forget the sound of sho cams threatening to fail.

On first inspection, mine looked aligned as well. It sounded just like a loose lifter and was clearly evident with the hood closed and across the driveway. Closer inspection found each of the slave sprockets shifted in just a tad (2-6mm). Little effort was required to move them back out, and funny thing, the noisy "lifter" went away. I welded the sprockets and moved on to the next project.

If you read the failure accounts at v8sho.com, running this engine with pending cam failure should scare you to death. Interestingly, they seem to make more noise at idle and all but disappear at higher rpms. So, as you got your head under the hood looking for the source of the noise, don't be surprised if your cams choose that time to fail. At least one account of failure in the shop with the hood up has been noted.

 

[JCU]

Take it from someone who had their engine die from the cam sprockets failing. When it starts happening, it is VERY loud and not some low decible tick. You know something is majorly wrong with your engine.

Since day one, my engine has always made slight noises. They were nothing overly loud. As a matter of fact, they were most prevalent when it was extremely cold out. I'm on my second engine with 32K miles on it and it is a quiet engine but still has some low noises. The engine has full power and runs great. If the cams started failing, I'd know it without hesitation from the sound and from the responsiveness of lack of from the engine.