Bryant89

My Evo 9 has always had very noisy and loud lifters, but recently it has developed a clicking/ticking noise when driving under load. This is especially obvious in 5th/6th gear on the highway at about 2k to 3.5k RPM. The noise begins softly at first, barely audible but the more I step on the accelerator, the louder the clicking gets. It does not vary with the car speed and does not necessarily get louder with engine speed. It gets louder or softer depending on how much I step on the accelerator. If I maintain my accelerator position and cruise on the highway, the sound stops. The clicking sound can be drowned out by listening to music at comfortable levels.

The clicking noise is not always present either. Sometimes I can spend the whole day driving and the noise doesn't appear, sometimes it can start after about 10mins of driving. If the car is in neutral and I rev the engine, the sound does not appear. It only happens when there is some load present. In the video, I am in 6th gear 2k RPM stepping on and lifting off the accelerator and the sound gets louder and softer.

Could anyone have a guess at what it is? My guesses are: failed/dead lifter or rod bearing.

Video:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Ra...JivTm5ThuXKid9
alternate link:
https://streamable.com/wjewj

kikiturbo

unplug your boost valve and see if you can hear it then..

vmrevo9

iTrader: (33)

Had something similar. It was my 3 port boost solenoid. I went to Lowe’s and grabbed some rubber washers. Put the washers between the solenoid and the frame where it’s mounted and the noise went away

edit** after seeing get video again your sound is definitely louder but hopefully it’s something simple

barneyb

Maybe try to measure the frequency of the noise. Valve train would be half engine rpm and balance shaft twice engine rpm.

Bryant89

Thanks for the inputs guys. I had my trusty mechanic check it out. After lifting the car up on the hoist, the sound was definitely coming from the lower block although it was barely noticeable when idling.

With his recommendation I had the engine lifted out and stripped and lo and behold, the main bearing was pretty much gone. Plenty of gold shavings in the oil pan. In fact it had scratched the crankshaft and the broken bits of the bearing had been flying around in the cylinder and chipped off parts of the bottom of the pistons.

Turned out the previous owner had built this 2.3L stroker terribly. Crankshaft was from a 4G64 but Con rods were stock, pistons were 100mm stroke but standard 85mm bore and therefore a little loose. Cams were advertised to be Tomei 290 but we discovered it to be stock.

I'm only thankful that the block was not damaged and is still in good condition. I've decided to revert to 2.0L for longevity and avoid complications. I don't intend to break any records with this car.

The new build is going to be 2.0L:
1. 4G63 stock crankshaft
2. Manley H Beam 150mm Con rods
3. Wiseco 1400HD 88mm stroke 86mm bore
4. Kelford 272 cam shafts
5. Evo 9 TD05-16GC 10.5T stock turbo upgraded to 20G (I'm considering switching to a HTA71 or FP Green, would it be worth the cost?)
6. GSC Zero Tick Lifters
7. Changing out all the timing belt components as well as the water pump since the engine is out anyway.