Tappet Noise

[b16bdx]

Dear All

I have just purchased a TVR Tuscan Speed Six with 6500 miles on the clock.
One question I have is that the engine seems to have very noisy tappets / cam. (constant tap, tap, tapping all the time) I think that when I test drove another Tuscan it was the same but I am not sure. Is this a characteristic of this engine?

The car has been back to TVR to have replacement cam followers etc; before I collected but I would be interested to hear from other owners of the Tuscan
for their views.

Regards

[phockit]

I get noticeable tappet noise on my Cerb Speed 6 under light load at lower revs. This is normal apparently and, as long as it's been serviced properly, no need to worry.

If you press your right foot down harder you find it goes away

[b16bdx]

Thats the problem Paul, the noise doesnt go away its always there.
If a take the roof off the noise of the tappets is quite considerable.
TVR have done some work on the cam followers last week and I wonder if they have fitted hardened followers which are noisy.
I have had a 5 Litre Ford 302 engine in a cobra I build
www.akcobra.co.uk and the noise was nothing like this.

[phockit]

Try and listen to a few others and possibly try another dealer/specialist and see if they think it's out of the ordinary.

These engines are quite noisy (could be I don't hear alot of the noise as the Cerb has a roof). I was also paranoid about any noise when I first got my car because of the rep the Speed 6 engine has for reliability. Checked around

Get another oppinion and if they think it's ok then get on with driving it you soon relax and get used to the quirks (like the awfull sound it makes when cold).

Are there any running-in requirements after having the followers replaced ?? Could just be settling in.

[fish]

They are a noisy engine especially untill hot. Essentially being a race engine they concentrate on power not refinement. The tappets will widen as they near the service intervals which will not harm the engine. If something is wrong you will REALLY know about it.

If you only listen to your own you can start to think something is wrong, I did at one point. The only thing to do is drop into any dealer and ask them to have a quick listen, because they are with them all the time they will know immediatel whether it is okay. Having spoken to dealers this is quite a common question and almost all are fine.

Yes they do sound noiser with the roof off, when you open them up the noise does disappear. I would imagine you need to run it in though if you have had new follows. Best speak to the factory/dealer ad check what you need to do.

[b16bdx]

Thanks guys for the advice. I have a few other items for the dealer to look at, so they are going to pick it up and have a noisy at it.

I might go to the TVRCC meet and have a listen to another one.

Cheers Guys

[ajvmoore]

Yes sir, they all do that!

But seriously, there seems to be a top endish noise most of the time - generally known as 'sewing machine syndrome' - my car has done 18000 mls like this, and touch wood, no problems. but what do we really know!
just drive it, sounds different everyday - if it's gonna go, it'll go!