1989 2H/H55F 5 SPEED (1 Viewer)

[Rob81]

1989 HJ60

Just after Christmas I took my daughter away camping along the west coast of South Australia. While away I started to notice a faint noise that sounded like a leaky exhaust manifold gasket. Though I couldn’t see any signs of it leaking. To make sure I replaced both inlet and exhaust manifold gaskets before driving 700km home.
On the trip home I noticed the noise was still there.
I spoke to a lot of people and was told to check bearings. So I checked both rod and crank bearings to find a bit of wear but nothing a 300k km motor shouldn’t have. Anyway I bought all new bearings and rolled them in about 3 weeks ago. The new bearings helped with better oil pressure but the noise is still present and slowly getting worse.
The noise is really faint on first start up until the car gets to temp. Once at temp and at idle I can hear it a lot more. Then when driving it’s constant through the whole rev range.
The car hasn’t seemed to of lost any power but in saying that. When I have to drive it I take it very very easy as I’m not sure what this noise could be.

The head has all been refurbished about 10k km ago.

I’m stuck with what it could be. Fingers crossed I can get some helpful information here.

Any help would be great.

Regards

Rob

 

[duncanrm]

What is the history on your injectors.. if one is cracking early (crack pressure too low) you'll get a very distinctive sound that's quite reminiscent of an exhaust leak. You can identify which one with the long screwdriver to the ear test. Rebuilding the set will cost you about $550 in SA.

 

[Rob81]

What is the history on your injectors.. if one is cracking early (crack pressure too low) you'll get a very distinctive sound that's quite reminiscent of an exhaust leak. You can identify which one with the long screwdriver to the ear test. Rebuilding the set will cost you about $550 in SA.

The injectors have near 100k km on them.
I’ve recently looked in to getting them done but want to be sure of the problem before I keep spending.
I understand what your saying but wouldn’t an injector noise be the same from start up and go up and down with revs?
The noise slowly gets louder until it’s at operating temp.

Thank you for your reply and I’ll look in to it further.

Cheers

 

[duncanrm]

The injectors have near 100k km on them.
I’ve recently looked in to getting them done but want to be sure of the problem before I keep spending.
I understand what your saying but wouldn’t an injector noise be the same from start up and go up and down with revs?
The noise slowly gets louder until it’s at operating temp.

Thank you for your reply and I’ll look in to it further.

Cheers

I missed the part where you said it was constant through the rev range.. sorry. Its not going to be an injector.

The noise doesn't vary with on road speed either?

Have you tried the garden hose trick.. use a metre of garden hose, one end in your ear and the other end probing about the engine bay to find the sound?

 

[Rob81]

I missed the part where you said it was constant through the rev range.. sorry. Its not going to be an injector.

The noise doesn't vary with on road speed either?

Have you tried the garden hose trick.. use a metre of garden hose, one end in your ear and the other end probing about the engine bay to find the sound?

The noise slowly gets worse until operating temp but yes does care through the rev range.
I have tried the garden hose but all sounds the same.
Other then stripping the motor which I can’t do here. I can’t find anything.

Thank you for your help and would appreciate any other thoughts may have.

Cheers

 

[Rob81]

I missed the part where you said it was constant through the rev range.. sorry. Its not going to be an injector.

The noise doesn't vary with on road speed either?

Have you tried the garden hose trick.. use a metre of garden hose, one end in your ear and the other end probing about the engine bay to find the sound?

 

[Rob81]

I forgot to mention that I’ve done the valve lash twice since I noticed the noise. First time I noticed that the very first rocker had no adjustment left. So I ordered new rockers and new push rods incase they were bent. After changing them all over all the old gear looked fine and the same rocker still had no adjustment.
I then thought the lifter may have collapsed but was told that’s not possible with solid lifters. Which is what a 2h uses.
While I was rolling in the bearings I checked the cam and it still looks new. So weather this has anything to do with the noise. I don’t know

 

[Seth S]

Is it possible to stop fuel flow to one cylinder at a time to see if the sound changes with a given cyl? Also could be a wrist pin.

 

[Rob81]

Is it possible to stop fuel flow to one cylinder at a time to see if the sound changes with a given cyl? Also could be a wrist pin.

I guess I can crack one injector at a time and see what happens.
I’ll give it a go tomorrow when I have time.
If it was a pin it’ll be there the whole time. Not come on as the motor gets to temp.

Cheers

 

[Seth S]

I guess I can crack one injector at a time and see what happens.
I’ll give it a go tomorrow when I have time.
If it was a pin it’ll be there the whole time. Not come on as the motor gets to temp.

Cheers

yeah...just trying to think of locations for a noise. When you put new bearings in did you plastigage them to check their clearance?

on the 2F/3F etc we can just pull a plug lead off and see if the noise changes....its a good way to help rule out or ID a problem cylinder...so maybe it would work the same on the diesel if you can block the fuel.

 

[OSS]

Just another thing to add…
Could noise be a bolted on component and not the engine itself?
Water pump
Alternator
Power steering
Etc

 

[Rob81]

yeah...just trying to think of locations for a noise. When you put new bearings in did you plastigage them to check their clearance?

on the 2F/3F etc we can just pull a plug lead off and see if the noise changes....its a good way to help rule out or ID a problem cylinder...so maybe it would work the same on the diesel if you can block the fuel.

I’ll give it a go today after work.
Yes I uses Plastigage on every bearing surface and all was good.

 

[Rob81]

Just another thing to add…
Could noise be a bolted on component and not the engine itself?
Water pump
Alternator
Power steering
Etc

 

[Rob81]

That has crossed my mind as I took it for a drive down to the next town earlier. That’s about 35km away and the noise was there but didn’t affect the motor in any way.
I’m thinking it may be something in the bell housing but my clutch is fine. Maybe a spigot bush. So I’ve just ordered a bore scope and will check it out.
It can’t be anything other then a bolt on part.