16v rattle

[pjd]

hi guys im new to the scene,need alittle info ,my mate has my old mk3 8 valve and he just got a 16v complete car and was going to swap the motor as the body has had it, the 16v has been laid up for 3 years, it started very easy but theres seems to be noisy up top, would the followers be stuck? cheers.

[neil1780]

have you let it run for a while? my 8v was very tapety when it started after 4 months but it quietend down after about 5-10 mins.

[Wayne]

Drain and replace the oil and see if it helps.

Ps you need to swap more than just the engine

[thai-wronghorse]

This is something that has become a concern of my own quite recently as it goes. It is due for a cambelt change and ive noticed that the belt  / tensioner has become increasingly noisy (squeaky & rattly) plus the fact i reckon an oil change wouldn't go a miss now either.
There definitely appears to be a fair bit of top end rattling and was wondering if it was followers or cam chain? If this was the case i was thinking it would surely make sense to attend to these whilst the cambelt was been done to save on labour costs.
Il also be getting the water pump, thermostat and drive belts replaced whilst im at it for good measure.
Are there any other common things i should consider when tracking down and reducing engine rattles / noises? What sort of prices do followers and cam chains go for and are there any checks i should be making on these before spend any of my hard earned cash unnecessarily?

[rubjonny]

drain a litre of oil and top back up with ATF, run it gently for a week or so and see if it quietens down. been known to sort out sticky tappets, but be aware it will clean out the sludge holding buggered components together. my oil cooler failed after doing this!

another thing you can do is whip out your mechanics stethoscope, which is a screwdriver with blunt end pressed to your ear. touch it to various spots round the head to narrow down the source of the noise. if its all the way over on the passenger end of the head its prob the chain, if anywhere else its tappet(s)

[thai-wronghorse]

Ok cool, Il try that and see how it gets on. After a week has passed of running it with the ATF in should i do a full oil and filter change as originally planned?
You mention about your oil cooler, what exactly failed on that after you'd used ATF? Did it clog up with the shifted gunk?

[rubjonny]

aye drain all the old crap out and refil with nice fresh oil and a good vw or mann oil filter.

the oil cooler was dead before i started, its just the flush removed all the baked on oily crap holdign it together! it would have gone sooner or later though. atf itself wont harm anty of the internals, but its just somethign to be aware of. with it being a newer car id say you'll be ok, but it comes down to how well its been looked after. if its always had a nice clean coolant mix in then it should be fine, if its been left with brown rusty water in for years like mine had then it'll be pretty corroded inside!