Gents i'm after some advice please

The 3dr has a nasty knocking noise coming from the engine. When cold the car sounds like a diesel! I know that the 2wd engines suffer from piston slap but this seems excessive

The noise does get a lot less as the oil gets hotter but still remains.

If the car is simply idling then i have no noise
If i raise the revs nice and steady even quite high revs i get no noise
If i rev the car with short sharp revs i get the knock!

if i drive the car normal i (by this i mean tootle along like an old lady) i get no noise
If i load the car up (say in to low a gear going up a hill etc), i get the noise! and it increases as the revs do - but only while under load not if i raise the revs steadily.

I'm worried its big ends! But the engine did sit in my garage for 18months while i finished the car. Someone has said that the tappets could have drained of oil in that time and since re-fitting and starting the engine (with new oil and filters of course) the tappets could have gone.

My question is - could the noise i describe be tappets, ie only when under load and not during idle etc
Or is it more likely to be big ends?
Or can piston slap remain even when the engine's hot?
Anyone got any tests i could try to attempt to work out what it is?

I have listened and its hard to say weather its top or bottom, at a guess i'd say its nearer the bulkhead side of the engine, but not 100% sure

it certainly doesnt appear to effect the cars performance

Anyone else had this problem??

Any help is appreciated as i'm ripping my hair out with it at the moment

 

ohh dear; you dont have much luck do you mate? - you havent had it on the road long!

Basically it sounds like big ends from the description you've given; big ends tend to make a hammering noise when under load (e.g. not idle)

if you rev the engine between 2-4rpm you'll "most likely" to hear it then. Another is to try and drive up a big hill in a high gear, it will be noticeable, but it will depend on how bad they are to the noise they make

it could be piston slap but i doubt it, as piston slap normally goes away once warm - having said that mine sounded awful for the first 5/10 minutes

whats the history behind the engine? has it been refreshed?

best thing to do is post a video of the motor running. you can rev it up from under the bonnet

matt

if you were closer i'd have a look

 

It's very unlikely to be the big ends, so long as you have been on top of decent oil/filters all the time.
I just collected my crank today and all it needed after 200,000 miles was a POLISH, no regrind necessary, the firm I use have effectively a open cheque from myself to do anything they consider needs doing machine wise, but shows they can last the mileage if looked after.
It sounds almost definitely like bore rock, that is chronic piston slap, where the wear is so bad that the pistons actual minutely try to rock in the bores.
This tends to affect the rear most pistons the worst as they run the hottest and wear the most, by this time the rings are usually a bit shagged, various clues to this.
The easy way to tell if it is the big ends is to park the car on concrete somewhere and rev the engine from eunder the bonnet with your foot on the floor by the front wheel, you can often detect a slight knock.
Your one doesn't sound like this at all to me.
My engine was going 100% perfect but it nearly needed 1mm oversize due to wear instead of 0.5mm, and had the same issues as you, although mine would go 100% silent just as you ease the clutch up pulling away.
tabetha