I just purchased a a 96 Cavalier with a 2.2L ticking engine and noisy exhaust and smoking on startup until warm. Vehicle has 119k miles, drives good, starts right up, and doesn't vibrate. Tranny feels strong too. Back to the engine... I did some diagnosing and used the hose method to listen for a sticky valve/lifter, and tracked the noise to cylinder #1.
So...

Pulled the valve cover and everything looked very clean. I couldn't see or observe a valve hanging up so I did a dry compression test, and all looks normal based on my research..
Also made sure each reading held for 10 seconds too..

Here's what I got:

1 - 165
2 - 155
3 - 160
4 - 155

Thinking it must be a lifter, head gasket leak, or valve guide/seal I pulled the head. What I found what that cylinder #1 was very oily inside. There was an oily carbon buildup on the head for #1, plus both valves appeared to have some oily carbon buildup. Cylinders #2 - #4 looked "normal" from what I could tell... Minor carbon buildup, no oil fouling of the plugs or valves. Overall the head gasket appeared to be solid too.

Pulled the lifters which came out easily and were well oiled. Not much carbon buildup on them, rollers are flat and roll easily, plus no noticeable varnish deposits. Could they be collapsed internally? Any way to test them?

Then...

Pulled the valves... The springs are strong, the valves and pushrods are straight, although the rods have a nice varnish buildup. Valves from cylinder #2 - #4 were relatively clean all around, but the valves from #1 had oily deposits above the ridge. The one thing I noticed is that the valve seal on the #1 exhaust valve fell off while pulling the valve while the others required pliers to remove. I suspect this may have been the source of the oil leak in #1. The valve guides appear to not be worn, but I don't have a deflection gauge to accurately test that right now.

Inspected the block, found nothing out of the ordinary... I didn't notice any obvious scoring on any of the cylinder walls, but I did find a slightly melted lifter guide bracket for #3 - #4 which I will replace.

Since I have found no real reason for the lifter tick, is it possible that I'm hearing a noise from the timing chain or tensioner? I plan to pull the cover off and inspect the timing chain while I have everything apart. I also plan on replacing all 8 valve seals while I have the head off just to be safe (they're cheap enough). Is there anything else I should be looking at before I begin putting things back together?

Thanks for helping out a newbie on his first post.

- Steve

Steve, that engine has a LOT of miles left...

All indications, those vale seals must have gone bad.......

Simple valve job, whooppee !...

Yea the engine seems to have a really compression stat, I think a good cyl head rebuild should work out for you. If the ticking is still there, May need to replace the timing chain.


Good Luck.

Something about ester based motor oils keeps valve seals, gaskets, and other parts

causing expensive replacement...

It's been over 20 years since I've had to replace a gasket or seal that failed....

May be wrong, but highest priced Amsoil and maybe Redline are still

ester based....

Unfortunately, your timing chain is of the "Morse" type.... no rollers, just cheap...


Lifters, maybe just replace, who knows when they may fail, not me.....

Wow! All I can say is what a fast response, I'm very grateful to you all!
Leland, Glad to hear that's it's a valve job... Should I bother replacing the guides as well while I'm at it, or just the seals which I've already ordered. I'll get a price on lifters... If it's not much, I'll replace them all given the hassle to do it again after everything is back together..

So the timing chain is of the "morse" type? Lucky for me I know morse code.. Seriously, I'll pull the timing cover off and check it out.. I understand that it's a measure of deflection which tells whether the chain and/or tensioner is shot? I'll look at it tomorrow.

Thanks for the great advice... Glad to know I'm going in the right direction.

Steve, you you don't say how many miles you have, so I'll tell you flat-out: Replace the timing chain and tensioner. They tend to fail after 100,000 miles so doing it will prevent an unbelieveable disaster later. And the ticking, well... that oddly seems to be natural for the LN2, if you're like my buddy and think all GM pushrod 4-cyls just tick. But I don't follow that school of thought. It's said in the books that with our engines (Yes, I have one too) that the rockers should be torqued-to-yield and replaced if they develop noise. Still, I would definately replace the chain and tensioner, as this near it's end will make noise too.

Go beyond the "bolt-on".

Thanks Nickelin.. 119k is the mileage right now. After reading about others experiences and potential problems I have expanded the scope of my work.

Here's what I have done so far:

1. Removed and cleaned alternator
2. Removed water pump, will replace with a reman due to corrosion.
3. Removed and disassembled cylinder head. Thoroughly cleaned the head overnight in degreaser and dried it well. Cleaned EGR passages. Cleaned and polished the valves, checked for bending, burning, and scoring. All were good. Did have one valve seal fall right off, so that could have been the reason for burning a little oil when cold. Checked the valve guides which were all in good shape. Polished the gasket mating surfaces. Cleaned and polished the pushrods which had a lot of varnish buildup. Checked the springs, making sure they were strong and straight. Reassembled everything using new valve seals, new EGR gasket, and new water outlet gasket.
4. Reinstalled the cylinder head and torqued the bolts to spec plus 90 degrees. (That was a lot of fun)
5. Reinstalled exhaust manifold with new gasket.
6. Removed right-front wheel and trim (for timing chain replacement) and checked the brakes on that side. They appear good for now, and should last for at least a year.
7. Removed upper right-hand engine mount. Removed the timing cover. Noticed the chain appeared to be tight, and tensioner still was holding tension and did not appeared worn. Removed the timing gears and chain, and had one of the guides on the tensioner fall right out. (Source of ticking noise??) Installed new timing gear/chain kit. Installed new gasket and replaced cover. Reinstalled engine mount, trim, and tire.

Still have more left to go. I did not install the lower intake manifold prior to installing head because I believe I have a leaky power steering line (high-pressure). I know It is going to be a pain to install the lower intake afterward, but it can be done. Going to reinstall the alternator, water pump, overflow tank, and dipstick. Don't think I'll get much farther due to the foot of snow I have to clear from the driveway when I get home.

I have also noticed that I appear to have a transmission fluid leak somewhere. The top, and front of the trans case are covered in fluid, and so are both of the cooling lines. My guess is that one or both of the lines is bad and is leaking. Depending on cost I may just replace them both, but to begin with I'm going to look at the high pressure side first. Anyone know of a good source?

Hope to have this thing running by the end of the week. A little longer than I planned due to the lousy weather and limited after work hours. Thanks again for the help!