The hell noise is this now..
Sounds like it's coming from the top of the intake manifold, as about centered on the engine as you can get. But it's not always there. Its presence is not dictated by how hard I drive the car (which 5 days a week it's daily driven to and from work). It doesn't sound like a spun bearing (heard a vid of that, and this isn't a banging, but almost like an obnoxious monstrous exhaust leak), and I check my oil daily to make sure I'm not low. I know I have a few exhaust leaks regardless, but sometimes at idle it's almost louder than the exhaust/cam chop. I'd get a vid but it probably wouldn't show up, that's how erratic it is. oil pressure is just fine, level is fine, car pulls good (havent been taching up to 7k every day, but around town with a few WOT blasts every now and then it's without incident). Any ideas? I don't know if it's a loose rocker because wouldn't it be more constant than just "sometimes"? I know what piston slap sounded like before the cam, and it sounds nothing like this (well maybe just piston slap on steroids), and if that's what THIS is... holy hell. I have M1 5-30, which I've been told is on the thin side, I had my brother get me 12qts of Amsoil ASL 5-30 coming in tomorrow or Monday I'm switching to. Is it possible that it IS piston slap and the oil itself is just too thin for my application? I'm at a loss, but the car itself starts, idles, drives, fine. Weird...
-J