I bought a '94 Accord EX with the 2.2L V-Tec for my 16 year old son last month.
Great car, 120K, runs very strong. Timing belt, water pump, and oil change were recently done.
In the last week or so, I've noticed a mechanical sound coming from the motor that sounds somewhat like a diesel engine, but not that loud. I thought it was valve noise, so I went ahead and adjusted the valve lash. Before doing any adjustment, I checked the lash to see if I could spot the rockers that were out of spec. Unfortunately , they were almost all in spec except may be 3 or 4 of the exhaust valves, which were just a little loose. I went through with my son (time for him to learn how to turn some wrenches), and set the lash on all of the valves. After we were done, we cycled the engine a few times and went back through and re-checked them. There was maybe one or two that were slightly looser than where we set them and re-adjusted them. Put the car back together, and its still making the same sound.
Any ideas on what else could be the source of the noise? I'm probably going to do an oil change with some heavier weight oil just to see if it makes a difference. It really does sound like valve noise, similar to what a car sounds like when it gets a quart low.
Are these 2.2L motors known for making a mechanical lifter type sound even when they are in spec? I don't recall hearing other Accords sounding like this.
Thanks for any input.
Adam B.

 

Sounds are tough to diagnose over the internet. Does the sound go away after the engine is warmed up? Also what were the specs you used to set the exhaust and intake valves?

I would lean towards using the weight of the oil recommended for the engine (10w-30, it think).

 

.010 on the Intakes, .012 on the Exhausts. Engine was dead cold.
Sound didn't go away after warm up. I hate to use this stuff, but I did add some STP oil treatment and it did get significantly quieter. Still, louder than what seems right. I'll probably go back through and re-check.
I ran the lash on the tight side, but still in spec. I assumed that if the lash was set tighter as opposed to looser, it would be less likely to make noise. Is this a false assumption? I presumed that too much lash would definitely increase the valve train noise, whereas even if there were too little clearance, there wouldn't be valve train related noise (but you would have some other more serious problems).
So I guess my question is if the tolerances were run on the tight side of spec, would the valve train make noise?

 

They're also known for somewhat noisy fuel injectors, and that clicking sound might be similar?? Still, it's a recent change in the sound, right?

I don't have a 1994 so I didn't try to look up whether 0.010 and 0.012 are the correct valve clearances. Did you measure at the camshaft lobe or at the valve stem? I think with your SOHC engine it's supposed to be measured at the valve stem.

 

specs are correct, and yes jim, adjustment is at the valve stem on this one. noise???
piston slap? exhaust leak? some rotating assy. telegraphing noise? through in a half can of Seafoam into the crankcase and see if the noise changes, could be some sticky valve train components? could even be broken up substrate in the catalyst?

best guess for noises...

 

My son and I went to do his first oil change on the car. We hadn't done it earlier, because the seller of the vehicle just had it changed about 500 miles prior to purchase. (It had one of those oil change stickers on the windshield showing a change needed in about 2500 miles). When we adjusted the valve lash, the oil was clean, and at the proper level, so I didn't think anything about it.

Went to pull the filter, and my filter wrench was too big. I thought mayble I bought the wrong filter and wrench, but double checked and they were correct. I grabbed the filter wrench for my wifes CRV, which seems to have the smallest fillter ever made, and it was the right size. Removed the filter that was on the car, and compared the seal to the one that I was going to put on. The seal was the same size, but the replacement filter was a lot larger. Installed it, added oil, fired it up. Ah...no lifter noise. Is it possible that the smaller filter was restricting the oil flow to cause the lifter noise? Or, I wonder if since they used a later model filter, if they also added the lighter 5w-20 oil, and the combination of the two was enough to create lifter noise.
Happy camper now that his car sounds like it should.

 

Can u post pics of the different filters. Cause I notice my motor doing sorta the same thing. Last oil change when I did filter / oil. It started tapping really bad the first few seconds I started it up. It was really cold but Maby I could upgrade to a bigger size filter and it might help. Mine sounds like a diesel sorta too

 

Using Purolator oil-filter numbers, the older, larger size is PL-14459 while the newer smaller size is PL-14610.

But I'm not completely convinced that the larger one actually has larger area of filter media. It might be simply a larger can with more empty space.

 

Sorry, the one that came off the car went in the trash, and the one that replaced it is on the car.


That could be. Would be interesting to cut them open and see if there is a difference. Like I mentioned in my prior post, it might have been more than just the filter, possibly incorrect oil weight, or a combination of the two.

 

Oil filters have a pressure relief valve to avoid excessive restriction, but it's possible yours was faulty. I've heard of oil filters becoming blocked when oil additives to remove deposits are added.

From your description, I think you're right about filter as source of problem,... unless problem returns! Low oil pressure would cause bearings to make noise also (not good), and this might sound like a diesel.

good luck