dmel

Yesterday, hearing the engine more carefully I noticed a slight background whinning noise. Taking the car to an expert revealed that indeed there is an abnormal noise which is probably not Big End related (helicopter noise) nor piston ring related. He revealed that it could cambelt related. It is difficult to pinpoint the exact source of the noise.

He took each ingition cable out in turns and the noise was still there. If it is piston ring related would the noise dissapear or reduce if combustion was not occuring at the cylinder in question? What noise does a piston ring failure produce?

Finally, one day before first hearing the noise I did my first engine wash with a special spray for that purpose. I also sprayed the dyno. Is it possible that I have removed grease from the dyno or somewhere else that it shouldn't have been removed? Can I (should I) use WD40 to spray all belts?

Also the same day I went for my first dyno run and the car produced abnormally high power and perhaps lean running up the rev range. Car (MY 99, 44K miles) is perfectly normal except for a full Magnex exhaust (twin-dump DP, straight through CC). If we assume that the damage occured at the dyno, note that the car was running normal afterwards. I first noticed the noise arriving home after the dyno run.

Final question. Does a dyno run stress the engine more than a full blown B-road thrash? I would think the opposite as there is not as much load at the wheels on the dyno. The car held 0.9-0.95 bar up to 6K which is weird.

Sorry for the legth of this but I am really worried and this could be (touch wood) the first major failure of my car. Any suggestions/advice welcome. Thanks.

Dimitris.

dmel

Just a small update on the above. I put some WD40 on the dyno belt and the noise was drastically reduced. Which is the proper grease for belts? Can the internals of the dyno be re-greased?

The product used for cleaning was "Engine Wash" by Turtle Wax. Red liquid.

WREXY

Dmel,

If it was piston ring failure, I'd say you would be burning oil.

The engine wash has probably dried out your belts. They probably need some tightening. I don't think that a spray or grease exists for drive belts. WD40 does reduce the noise. The downside is, it can soften your belt if you use it regularly and the belt will eventually snap.

The belt lies horizontally right! Now if you can twist the belt to over 90 degrees with your hand it needs tightening.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Wrexy.