I took off my valve cover this week and did a little bit of work in there. Stay tuned to this post... I'll share with you guys how to get rid of the annoying cold-start ticking/slapping and keep it from coming back... it's actually a factory defect but it's not a huge wear issue, and is easier to fix than you may think.

As soon as I get it drawn and written I'll post it here first!

 

This is for "click" or "tick tick tick tick"-prone 2.0-liter 2nd-gen SOHC engines only... I recommend doing this right before an oil change to make it easier. Always remember to remove the negative battery terminal and never reconnect power until you are done.

... And just remember, nothing is more embarassing than starting up your car at work on a cool morning or evening and all of your co-workers making jokes about how you have a sewing machine stuck under your hood!

The purpose of this is to reduce wear and noise in the valvetrain due to ****ty engineering and assembly at the factory, by modifying two things: the way oil flows between the rockers, andeliminatingEXCESSIVEspacing/gaps between the rockers and their corresponding spacers.

1. Remove your valve cover with a 10mm socket.
2. Inspect all of your rockers, head, and cam lobes for buildup, excessive wear, etc.
3. Find the 10 different bolts that hold the flat rectangular spacers on top of the rocker-arm pivot shafts... there should be 5 on the exhaust shaft and 5 on the intake. They are located on the ends and inbetween each rocker arm.
4. Clean the head of each bolt and mark it's position with a paint marker... with a slight mark on the corresponding spacer as well. This is for later referrence when everything is re-assembled so you know where you are going to re-torque your bolts to without stripping them out.
5. Grab a hold of each rocker arm and try sliding it side-to-side on the arm (driver's side to passenger's side and back again)... you will probably find that some of them "slap" back and forth against the spacers, and now you can see where your excessive cold-start "slapping," or "ticking" comes from.

SOLUTION:

6. Using a 10mm socket, removeONE of the bolts and the spacer that it was holding down. DO NOT remove more than one spacer at a time, and only remove another spacer after the previous spacer has been previously bolted back down and torque'd correctly. This will prevent misalignment of the rocker shafts. I recommend removing the CENTER bolt and spacer first so you will be able to slightly realign them when you bolt them back on to your motor.
7. With one spacer out, notice the edges of the spacer that the rocker armsslide and rotateagainst. On these edges, you will want to find the edge on each side that corners itself against the rocker and the shaft. Take a file and slightly rub the metal away at a 45-degree angle to remove about 0.5mm of metal from these two edges. Basically, you are creating a slight gap for extra oil to travel through while the rocker-arms are actuating later.
8. Once you've cleaned all the shavings off of the spacer, saturate it in oil and re-install it back onto the shaft in the same position it was in before you removed it (this positioning will apply ONLY to the center spacer on the intake side and the center spacer on the exhaust side).
9. Now, working your way outward, remove the spacers one at a time and file them the same way on both sides removing 0.5mm or less from the same corners on either side, and reinstall them before removing the next spacer... You want to contantly work your way outward, taking one spacer from the left, then one from the right, etc etc. As you re-install the four outer spacers on each arm, you want to inspect the gap that the rocker arms will be "riding" in, between the corresponding spacers. If the gaps are too wide, the rocker arm will move back and forth and "slap" up against the spacers while the engine is running. A little bit of space is okay and in fact necessary... if the spacers are reinstalled and the spacers are too tight against and "pinching" the rocker to restrict it's movement, you will create excessive heat and have engine damage and failure! The point is that you may have to slide or turn some of these spacers in towards the center of the engine as you reinstall them, slightly closer than their original position before you started. You want to leave a small gap for each rocker to "ride" in. I found more "play" in my rockers on the passenger-side before I started, and had to work the outer spacers on that side to the center slightly more, to reduce the amount of "walking" that the rockers were doing on the shaft.

After you are done, you should be able to grab a hold of each rocker and wiggle it slightly, hearing a small click as it slaps back and forth against each spacer. You should NOT hear a loud "SNAP, BAM," or anything like that, or see a lot of excessive movement back and forth... if you do, something is wrong with your engine. Remember, the point of doing all of this was for two reasons: First, to allow slightly more oil to creep over the rocker shaft into the side-seems of the rockers while the motor is running. Second, to slightly close the gaps between the one or two rockers that you find that simply have just too much space to slide back and forth in. The extra passage of oil from the corner-edges that you removed will also act as a hydraulic cushion as your rockers move side-to-side and prevent them for premature failure or excessive metal/metal wear, and "clicking."

I did this to my car 500 miles ago and it runs great, and I have not had a single "tick tick tick" on a cold start ever since. Basically, the guys at the factory just don't pay close enough attention when installing these or properly gapping anything. I personally think that the spacers could have been a few thousandths of an inch wider, but luckily there is enough room in the bolt holes to walk them in to slightly re-align them as described above. Anyway, for those of you who try this, you'll find it much easier than it sounds and if you pay attention and do everything right, I'm sure you'll be as pleased as I am with it.

Let me know how it works out for y'all.

 

"cold" start? whats that?

 

Ha ha, yeah... I should alsomention a couple of basic things like:

1. Do not attempt to start or rotate your engine while you have the spacers off,
2. Do not drastically move any of your rockers from side to side with the spacers off...

These should all be obvious but I figured I'd throw 'em out anyway.

 

f that, ill just live with it. im lucky if i can start my car when its cold lol nice writeup though

 

yea.... you should however take a picture and show everyone what you are talking about.... i.e. the bolts etc.

 

Yeah I should make it simpler and take a few photos someday... I really need to buy my own digital camera.

 

It got cold here once... it must have been 69* that night!

 

Okay well for those of us who live in the other 49 states... lol

 

I have a BRAND NEW digital camera I got as a gift, but the person that got it for me didn't know I had one already. Been looking to sell it, if you're interested in it PM me. I'll give you the specs.