I have crane gold 1.6 RR's on my car and they seem to make more noise than they should. It's a sqeaking almost chirping sound that increases with RPM. Is it possible that they were adjusted too tight? Any ideas...

Thanks in advance.

 

They should not make a squeaking noise. I would look carefully to see if they are rubbing somewhere.

 

I don't think they're rubbing. It really is more of a chirping sound tho. What's weird is they don't seem to squeak all the time but it has gotten louder and happens more frequently now. I'll see if I can get a video up of the car running with one of the valve covers off.

 

As already stated, look to see if anything is making contact. I take it they are NSA and you are using guideplates? If so, look to see if a pushrod is rubbing up against a guideplate. If you don't see any excessive wear then pour oil on all trunions, roller bearings and where the pushrod threads through the guideplates, start up and see if the noise disappears. I would bet it is a dry pushrod making contact with a dry guideplate.

 

Sorry I should have specified that they are SA, so no guideplates here. Im going to go take a video now...

Edit: OK so no chirping/squeaking sound now...It's odd that it only does it every once in a while. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree here thinking the noise is coming from the valvetrain when it actually isn't.

 

Are they newly installed?

 

is there oil being pumped up to the rockers?

 

There is, but is it possible that not enough oil is being pumped up because the rockers are adjusted too tight?

 

If you are concerned about the rockers being too tight, readjust them with the engine running.

 

Dumb suggestion, but check the alternator or clutch on the AC as they can cause a squeaking that comes and goes as the bearings in the pully go or the ac clutch sticks. Just a suggestion.

 

https://ls1tech.com/forums/11237410-post6.html

 

SS RRR - they have been on for about 2k miles. The noise started about 1k miles ago.

Dave00 - thanks for the suggestion. The alternator is new. The bearings in the old one were going bad and it's not the same noise the old alternator made. I will check the AC clutch out.

 

Start it w/out the serpentine belt on. That'll instantly tell you whether or not it's an accessory.

 

I should change the thread title to ::I jump to conclusions and over-complicate things:: I drove the car tonight until it started squeaking again... popped the hood with the car still running and whatever it is still squeaking. It does not sound like it's coming from the valvetrain (thankfully). Dave00, I think you were on the right track...although I did replace the alternator, idler pulley, and belt I guess one of the other accessories is going bad. SS RRR, I will try starting it tomorrow without the belt on just to be sure..

On another note...say it is the A/C compressor clutch. After doing some searching I found that the A/C compressor clutch bearing or magnet could be the culprit. Anyone have any ideas as to how to tell if it's the bearing or magnet? Looks like you can buy the bearing seperate but no luck so far on the magnet.



Stop reading here unless you want to read my little rant.

The reason I jumped to the conclusion of roller rockers is because I have had so many problems with them since the install. I had the RR's, valve springs, lifters, cam and lt's installed in august and I have not been able to enjoy the car since. I have had 2 roller rockers come loose while driving, 3 or 4 rocker arm studs back out, one bent pushrod (looks like an 'S' now) and a tear in the head gasket. One stud backed out the other day while I was going ~70mph on the interstate on my way home from college. I pulled over as soon as I could..and thankfully nothing bent/broke/became fubar. Such a PITA and on top of that the installer some how managed to mess up the valve seals I had put on less than 3k miles ago.

I dont even want to think about all the headaches the longtube headers have caused. I installed them myself which wasn't too bad but I paid an exhaust shop to weld the y-pipe and a hi-flow cat. Bad idea...they didn't have a mandrel bender (dont know why he didnt replace straight piece of exhaust running to the cat-back instead of bending the y-pipe...but whatever) so there's a nice crease in the y-pipe where it connects to the driver side header....and as some of you know that side already has problems with the y-pipe vibrating against the bottom of the car. Try making the pipe an inch or so larger in diameter (BUT RESTRICTING FLOW at the same time) and see how bad it vibrates. So 2 poly motor mounts later that problem is...still there but not so bad. Oh and did I mention the y-pipe leaks like a sieve at the welds? Anyway I'm sure no one has read this far....I'm done ranting.

 

Did you try taking off the belt and running it like mentioned earlier.

 

Going to tomorrow morning. I didn't feel like pulling the car in the garage tonight and messing with it.

 

Hey bud also check the PS pump as this thing can cause it as well.

 

I started the car without the belt on and did not hear the squeaking noise...although it didn't seem to squeak noticeably until driving for a few minutes or so. However, by turning the A/C compressor clutch by hand it made a slight squeaking noise. The PS pump pulley seems to be fine. I let it idle for several minutes and the valvetrain seemed to be alright aside from a slight leak on the drivers side head (thats another project for another day).

With that being said I decided to go ahead and replace the A/C compressor clutch bearing. Picked up the new bearing at autozone along with all the parts necessary to pull the clutch, c-clip retainer and pulley off the A/C compressor. They had a A/C compressor in stock so I looked at that to see how exactly to go about pulling everything apart. It looked pretty straight forward until I crawled under my car. The A/C compressor at autozone had a nut holding the clutch on...the one on my car did not. I ended up pulling the old compressor off and installing a new one. Right now I'm taking a break and about ready to go finish putting everything back together. One question though: The clutch on the old A/C compressor spins freely (and squeaks) whereas the clutch on the new one doesnt seem to want to spin at all. Is this normal?


Update: The A/C compressor was the problem. I still don't think the roller rockers are adjusted right but I won't be able to mess with those until summer break (gotta install new valve seals). IIRC the stock rockers had much more oil flowing thru the than these do. By the way ran into more problems today...it has been raining here for like 2 days straight so theres a good bit of water on some of the roads. While out driving to check out the new A/C compressor I guess I got into some pretty deep water or at least enough to get the opti wet...maybe splashing up there or something? Anyway the car starting running really rough, SES light came on and it was obviously misfiring. Felt like cylinders were firing then not firing sometimes. After dealing with that for a while, and letting the car idle for ~30min to see if it would stop misfiring I took it out for a drive and everything seemed alright. I was pretty excited at this point, thinking maybe I'd get to enjoy my car now...then I heard a noise coming from the drivers side valve cover. Pulled it off and another rocker arm stud backed out....wtf Anyway I fixed that and hopefully I'll be good to go from here on out. I think that's 4-5 rocker arm studs backing out since the install now.