Hi

A mate of mine's TP 1990 Magna has kind of a noisy engine. He hasn't lifted the rocker cover yet but it seems to be coming out of there. Reckons he changed the tappets 15 months ago though.

Does anyone know what a rattling in the cylinder head might be? If so, how would you fix it? Seems like the tappets can't be adjusted all that much but I don't know. He claims that when he put on a new cylinder head 15 months ago, he torqued everything to its right Nm, and gave the valve stem oil seals the right clearance so where to from there?

Curioso

try running a W-40 oil its a bit thinner when hot

lift off the rockers and inspect each lifter for "hammer " damage

the other rattle could be timing and balance shaft chain

Thanks. I'll do these things and get back to you with the results. The car's due for an oil change, timing chain retension and new rocker cover gasket in any case, so it's good timing (no pun intended). Might be hard to get an hydraulic lifter (tappet) though on its own if one is damaged - I'll have to see if Repco or Supercheap have them. Pretty common engine so I guess they would. Perhaps the overhead camshaft was torqued down too much and one got damaged from not having enough play or something.

My top candidate though is the timing chain. It hasn't been retensioned with that little cap and lever for quite a while. So remember kids, you really do have to retension the little thing every 50,000 or whatever they say in the manual, if you don't want a rickety sounding engine.

Stay tuned.

Curioso

Hey
You might try mystery oil and STP. 1/2 pint mystery oil, 1 pint STP. Ad to warm running engine after oil change. Also fuel additives can smooth things out.

Thanks. I did a bit of research and found a Marvel Mystery Oil and STP Oil. Looks like a good idea. I'll check it out when all else fails.

Actually changed the oil on it today (4.1 litres of W-40) and retensioned the timing chain. A lot of the whiny noise is gone but I
haven't checked the tappets yet. That timing chain goes way out on the lever when you haven't adjusted it for a year or so.

Update: Just spoke to a Goodyear mechanic who did a bang-on wheel alignment a few months ago about the noise. He said the Astron 2.6 litre engines are notorious for balance and timing chain noise and should be adjusted every few months with the cap and lever. So I guess there's the problem. The timing/balance chains and guides are less than five years old so it wouldn't be worth changing them at this point though.

Curioso

To the MODs - once again I'd like to consign this thread to the dustbin of history, or blogstory.

Thank you,

Curioso

how to adjust the chain on a 2.6 astron

remove the cap on the timing cover 2 10 mm bolts