I've just fitted a rebuilt bottom end and a second hand head to my RST. I was assured the head was good with no knocks or rattles but I have a knock I've had con rod shells fail on me before and it sounds very much like that noise but the bottom end has just been rebuilt so can't be that (I hope) Is it possible to take the cam out of the head without taking the head off?

Help me please I'm running out of faith

 

tap tap tap tap

 

How does it sound? Well, it sounds as though you're at that point where you'll now learn why fitting a performance cam to an RST is the hardest part of tuning one! LOL.

Well, getting it to keep its lobes anyway.

 

I bought the head with the cam already fitted. It came off a supposedly good engine. I'll try and take a video and put it up.

 

Visual inspection should reveal very simply if its worn or not TBH.

Not normally any sound as such though.

 

Yeah they are case hardened aren't they? So once they are worn, they get bad quick, so you should be able to see the wear on the lobes I'd have thought? But I could be wrong.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W2O3_4kewY

have a look and see what ya think!

 

got no sound on my work pc

but if its knocking its more likely a lifter issue than a cam lobe

 

Sounds like one of the tappets has dried right out to me.

 

I've just had all the tappets out and all looked in A1 condition, I looked down the holes and felt the cam lobes and they also seemed to be A1???????????????????
What the f**k's wrong with this engine!!!!!

 

I dont believe you know what you are doing checking the tappets, I still think one or more is fucked personally.

Listen with a screwdriver or similar to see which end the noise is coming from, swap the tappets from one end to the other, see if the noise moves.

 

The tappets, just cos they look ok doesn't mean they are. My old Fiesta usd to have one tapet that tapped for the first 20 seconds of starting everytime. After that it was silent and it ran like a dream, tappet visually looked absolutely fine. If it's a performance cam you'll need to fit anti-pump lifters rather than boggo stock items

 

You are 100% correct Chip, I don't know what I'm doing with the tappets! I was expecting to remove them and find chuncks missing out of them! I'll try the screwdriver thing tho.
So do people think the noise is no more serious than a set of tappets?

 

Take out your valve cover and press every tappet with a screwdriver or something similar when the particular tappet(and valve is closed). If the tappet goes down and then rises slowly or isn't raising at all then you have it. No need to much force to check (about 10 kilos max) but you need to turn the engine by hand to check them all.
I hope that this will help you and I also watched the video and it does sound like a tappet and a really bad one to. You also maybe need to check if the tappets oil supply line is clogged...

 

Right, this engine has now had it's 3rd head on and still makes exactly the same noise os the 1st I thought it could have been a con rod shell so I removed these and checked and these were still brand new! Could it be the timing or can anyone think of anything else?

 

On your tube vid it sounds fine at tickover,wouldn't a dry tappet be noisy all the time?.My sapphire has a lazy tappet when first fired up sometimes,but that comes and goes.That doesn't even sound like a tap to me it sounds like a knock.I know you say you have looked at the shells,was there any discolouration to the crank ? the last crank I did had picked up on one which was hardly noticeable but still sounded like that.Just as you were putting load on it there would be a slight knock not as loud as yours mind but it did polish out.