Hey,
as it starts getting colder where I live, I started to encounter a strange gurgling noise when cold starting my car. It seems to come from the top of the engine.
As I stated, its a quite muted and sounds almost like gurgling, maybe that's just normal valve train noise. Its my first winter with that car so I can't really tell.
It used to also occur sometimes in summer but just for a couple of seconds. Also it's just apparent at idle. While I give it some gas it quiets down immediately and runs extremely smooth and quiet all across the rev range.
https://youtu.be/wswX4lmduj0
I am talking bout that gurgling/clapping noise. Temperature wasn't even that low, like 50 degrees F. I'm currently using Castrol GTX 10W-40. After 1-2 minutes the noise goes away and the engine runs very well when cold, as well as warmed up. And it can't really be from oil starvation, the engine delivers oil into the head as far as I've seen and why should it deliver oil into the head at 70 deg. F but not do that for minutes at 50? The change in viscosity isnt that great overall.
I hope you can follow my thoughts, if it was a general oil starvation problem it should occur on any startup, at least for a short period of time.
But this must be oil-related as I also get the same noise if I start the car in summer, but using too thin oil. The owners manual states that 5w-oils arent to be used in temperatures higher than 70 deg. F, if you ignore the warning, you get besaid sound. Especially on warm starts.
The engine is an oldschool l4 1,8l carbureted gasoline sohc unit with rocker arms (without rollers or anything fancy), manual valve adjustment (no hydraulic lifters!). The engine design itself originated in the late 60s.
That's why I can't really believe that this old engine could be that picky about oil, maybe its just a normal sound with the antique valve system and I'm exaggerating things. According to the owners manual it can even be driven with sae30 in temperatures not lower than 30 degr. fahrenheit...I am safe to use my 10W oil at temperatures as deep as -20 deg. F according to the owners manual, so I dont see how it could get problems feeding oil into the head at 50 F...
Besides that, she's a keeper... Just 90k miles, clean internals, doesnt consume any oil, great compression and overall runs very well.
as it starts getting colder where I live, I started to encounter a strange gurgling noise when cold starting my car. It seems to come from the top of the engine.
As I stated, its a quite muted and sounds almost like gurgling, maybe that's just normal valve train noise. Its my first winter with that car so I can't really tell.
It used to also occur sometimes in summer but just for a couple of seconds. Also it's just apparent at idle. While I give it some gas it quiets down immediately and runs extremely smooth and quiet all across the rev range.
https://youtu.be/wswX4lmduj0
I am talking bout that gurgling/clapping noise. Temperature wasn't even that low, like 50 degrees F. I'm currently using Castrol GTX 10W-40. After 1-2 minutes the noise goes away and the engine runs very well when cold, as well as warmed up. And it can't really be from oil starvation, the engine delivers oil into the head as far as I've seen and why should it deliver oil into the head at 70 deg. F but not do that for minutes at 50? The change in viscosity isnt that great overall.
I hope you can follow my thoughts, if it was a general oil starvation problem it should occur on any startup, at least for a short period of time.
But this must be oil-related as I also get the same noise if I start the car in summer, but using too thin oil. The owners manual states that 5w-oils arent to be used in temperatures higher than 70 deg. F, if you ignore the warning, you get besaid sound. Especially on warm starts.
The engine is an oldschool l4 1,8l carbureted gasoline sohc unit with rocker arms (without rollers or anything fancy), manual valve adjustment (no hydraulic lifters!). The engine design itself originated in the late 60s.
That's why I can't really believe that this old engine could be that picky about oil, maybe its just a normal sound with the antique valve system and I'm exaggerating things. According to the owners manual it can even be driven with sae30 in temperatures not lower than 30 degr. fahrenheit...I am safe to use my 10W oil at temperatures as deep as -20 deg. F according to the owners manual, so I dont see how it could get problems feeding oil into the head at 50 F...
Besides that, she's a keeper... Just 90k miles, clean internals, doesnt consume any oil, great compression and overall runs very well.
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