mattwebb502

interesting tool. I like it. I have heard of distorted and or broken (in the case of cast, I guess) cams when not supported (torqued evenly in stages) on all bearing journals. Old timer VW mechanics warned not to zip the cam bearings off and on on the watercooled sohc engines but to instead do them in stages, because they had broken cams before. I wonder if that tool is meant to go in the dead center of the cam on cyl 3 to distribute the load better, or do they specify to install it at each set of lobes that are being measured?

I'm curious. Did the noise only occur during combustion or also during cranking w/out fuel or spark? ...probably didn't think to go so far as to test that? You have an odd problem. I'm stumped. and you're SURE that it's not VVT hubs? I don't know what they sound like, so forgive me if I'm off base here, but a long time ago on a completely different platform we had an awful clank clank clank noise happen out of nowhere and we were convinced that the bottom end was done. It turned out to be a loose adjustable cam gear that was slapping back and forth with cam/valve operation. ....we didn't catch that until after we decided to part out the car. haha

Now you're onto it! There's nothing like measurement to help know where you stand. re: bottom end With the cams out and plugs out, did you rotate by hand to feel for any resistance? With the pan off it wouldn't hurt to take a look at the rod bearings. Probably not necessary, and probably too late at this point anyways. Keep us posted!

deleted. Not much help, sorry.

Is this is a solid lifter head? Did you mix up lifters? Once the oil heats and thins, excess clearance valve noise can get louder on any of the solid lifter arrangements I've worked with... but it's usually noticeable right away. No exp. with the white blocks. EDIT: I think it's unlikely that your noise is foreign material induced. I would think that if a keeper got into the valve springs you'd have severe coil bind that would have much more significant and obvious consequences ---- with little warning instead of prolonged noise but otherwise normal running. Also, if there was foreign material in one of the lifter bores in/under the springs (and assuming you stopped the engine while the noise was still present) you should be able to locate the foreign object pretty quickly... it wouldn't just run and hide after shutting it down. I think you are probably chasing your tail looking for foreign objects.

Yup, you need to put together an accurate count on your keepers.... and put the bourbon down the next time so you can't get confused about whether you lost a keeper or not. :) lol how about blowing some compressed air all around the head passages to clear it of any hidden keepers / foreign objects? How do all of the cam lobes, lifters, and bores look? Nothing obvious, I presume? Good luck and keep us posted!

I'm a little confused --- did you start with a known amount of keepers? I would think that simple observation of what you started with vs what you ended up with would give the result, but clearly there must be more to the story that I missed. Can't failing sump o-rings give intermittent top end noise? Did any of the lifter bores get galled in the process of replacing the stem seals? VVT hub issues? Make sure one of your mystery keepers isn't lodged in the sump pickup..

:( Damned Fiats. Love/hate, eh? I haven't even pulled mine out of storage this year.....

Can you refit the distributor, get your fuelling issues sorted, then move back to the coil packs?

Soubds like light at the end of the tunnel to me! Possible that 1 and 3 got mixed up with something else in the harness? Doubtful. Or something is funky with the connector(s) you added? I know you said the leads passed a simple resistance test, but as you know under in-circuit load can yield very different results. Scope would be useful here. Aside from fuel fouled plugs, bore wash and loss of compression in 1 and 3? Sounds like you need to use that external harness and dry out 1 and 3. Add a cc or so of oil to each and crank with fuel/spark (ecu) fuse removed ... then get that oh yeah! running! Good luck.

Failed clamp diodes in the coil packs allwoing inductive kick to damage the ecu drivers? I would think the coil packs (and ecu) would be pretty well engineered to safeguard against this, though. curious to see what you find here. Sure sounds like you're closing in on it. Yeah, figured the exhaust thing was a long shot but worth the mention Mine was a dirt filled tailpipe due to a backwards spin into a ditch. Would run for 5 seconds then quit, but it was pretty obvious.

I think I'd look closely at that regulator and all related plumbing pump/feed/return line mismatches or obstructions? defective unit dumping raw gas out the vac/boost port? How exactly is the gauge plumbed in the circuit? My preference would be to get a reading directly at the rail itself. Edit: Stupid question, but there's no chance of an exhaust obstruction? Backed up exhaust gasses have done the exact same to me in the past. no forgotten paper towels in the exhaust ports, etc? Far fetched, I know.....

A judge would say "Mistakes happen. You did not afford them the opportunity to correct their mistake." The ruling is up to the judge. In this case the judge is the bank / card company. I'm not prepared to say which way this will go, but my gut is that the credit card company will side with the shop. The services were performed. It wasn't satisfactory to the client. The client did not dispute it with the shop first. I'm pretty sure you have to dispute with the seller/provider first. I think they are pretty black and white with these issues. It's one way or the other, with no "in the middle." ok, mid-post update: I posed this scenario, in very general/vague terms, to my wife. She worked for the "Presidential Office" for Citi for several years.. tip of the tip top tier of disputes and claims resolutions. These matters go no farther. Formal/legal letters back and forth with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), lawyers, etc, etc. The point is, she's a voice of real experience here. She says that this sort of thing used to come up ALL THE TIME. She says that without a doubt, the dispute department would ask "Did you give the shop a chance to correct the mistake? Most shops offer a guarantee on their work." She says the claim will get rejected. Occasionally these disputes would land on her desk, and they would get rejected. Dispute departments will sometimes, under pressure, just write off the claim. The merchant would keep their money, and the customer would get their money back. The bank would absorb the hit. The maximum they would write off is $25. If the disputes made it through the ranks all the way to the "Presidential Office" where they had absolute power, they would write off large claims. She said the most she ever did was around $7000, but they had to REALLY feel that the customer was very clearly in the right, and they would have to go in front of management and lay out their case under hard questioning in order to convince management to sign off.. which was not easy. A write off of over $500 was according to her "Pretty rare. Not very common at all." I asked her, "So if somebody brought this case to you?" She said, "We'd say tough sh!t.... In a nice way. We might give them a little something to make them feel better. $25 or $50. But for the most part, it would be tough sh!t." I think your chances are slim.

Nah, no worries. Don't go digging. I was just curious. I had looked around a year ago and nobody really seems to advertise that they use/sell/stock Melett. So without making a bunch of inquiries, a Melett kit is hard to price shop. Or maybe I'm just not looking in the right places. Sorry for the thread hijack.

Hussein, where did you source the Melett?