Could this be water pump?

[Timco]

No leak.

About a month or two ago, started sounding like dragging chain on cold startup. Out of nowhere. Went away in 5 seconds. Now it lasts for a bit after the idle drops, then as usual, slowly just fades away.

At first it was like a smooth chain drag but now it's a bit more chatter sounding and again, goes away in a bit of time and the car runs absolutely perfect otherwise.

This only happens when the car cools down completely. I mean totally cold.

Thoughts? Nothing in oil filter. In one year, 3 tiny bits of chain guide, but micro.

Tim

[The Radium King]

did you change the weight of oil you use? that is the sound of the chains slapping against the tensioner pads until the oil pressure builds up. all oils have a cold weight and a hot weight, and there's been some discussion about the weight of oil to use to ensure that all the oil doesn't run off the chain/pads if the car has been sitting for a while. the slapping will slowly deteriorate your tensioner pads and you should see the green plastic start to show up in your oil filter and, presumably, a representative change in deviation.

I had that problem and it went away when I did two things (three, if you count having all the problematic pieces of tensioner pad get abraded away ...):

- changed to 5w40, and
- updated the oil pump piston.

the oil pump piston is #26 in this parts diagram:

Oil Pump

(note that you should also change the spring #25 and the washer #5). the piston is there to ensure adequate oil pressure on start-up. in our cars it has a square edge and apparently it can bind. for the 9x7 they beveled the edge to solve the problem and updated the part # for the 9x6. the change is easy; 5 mins with your next oil change, and the parts cost all of $10.

[DieSiebener]

Yep! I was having quite similar issues and replaced mine.

[Timco]

I will try that oil and pump part. I am ordering parts and should do WP and mount anyway.

It sounds exactly like a standard top loader clothes washer. Chungala-chungala-chungala...until it gets flowing. Not when warm, still cold. Any way to tell between a WP and internal engine parts? It is indeed getting worse fast.

New external tensioners? 130K.

[JFP in PA]

Originally Posted by The Radium King

the piston is there to ensure adequate oil pressure on start-up.

The piston and spring assembly controls and limits the oil pressure of the system, nothing more.

[Timco]