Well I just recently had a brand new built shortblock installed by Paul@dbtuned allong with a whole bunch of other goodies and have been just putting the break in miles on her. The motor is running very well and isn't burning any oil whatsoever. But even on the last shortblock (Stock STi EJ257) I had what I thought was out of spec valves that needed to be fixed. The sound is like when a car has crappy gas and you go up a hill at a low RPM and hear the metallic pingy noise like the valves are floating. Well with the new motor I asked Paul to make sure all the valve adjusting buckets where correct (being the last motor was swapped in by Capitol Subaru and I literally bought the car coming straight from the Capitol shop) and hoping that this would fix the problem. Well when I picked up the car from Paul I noticed that it was still making the same exact annoying noise at low rpm (1500-3000), no boost, high load (dipping 1/2-3/4 throttle). Well with it not being the drivetrain (all 16 buckets were replaced with the correct size) I have to try and figure out what the heck this noise is. It sounds like detonation but its not the car has been checked out and its not knocking at all.

I have been searching and searching and have found a few possible problems and have eliminated them so far.

1-Have heard that the GMBCS can make a rattle that sounds like detonation so I unplugged it to see if it went away...no go.

2-Went to a heavier oil (15w50) to see if it was something internally. And at first I thought it did get better, but the oil is still in there and I hearing it just as before so I believe it was in my head.

3-Heard the wastegate flapper on the TD04 can make a rattle noise that sounds like det and its because the wastegate actuator gets loose. Well I checked out the actuator on my new GT30 and its super tight not loose at all. And this would not make sense because it made the same noise on my 18G as well.

4-Any heatshield rattle can be eliminated due to the car having no heat shields

Any ideas guys?

 

Mod list w/ engine bay pics please.

 

Loose motor mounts possibly?

 

Steve call paul and have him diagnose the problem and find the problem and then fix the problem.

The problem with people when they bring their car into a shop(no offense steve, btw we should chill this weekend but i can't drive anywhere cause i just got out of surgery) is that they tell the machanic what is wrong with their vehicle. Thats the first mistake cause any machanic can now just fix what you said is wrong and then nothing changes and you are still pissed but the machanic just did what you told him to do.

The best way to do it is, take your car to Paul have him diagnose the problem. he will find it and fix it. but don't tell him anything you have been thinking of what it could be. just tell him there is a noise and you need it figured out.

Ryan~

 

ummm backed off up pipe or down pipe egt bung??

 

yeah if paul put the motor in and you still have same issue take it back to him show him the noise and he will either take care of it or give you piece of mind that its not a problem.
He runs a good business and has a good reputation he will help you out. better to take a day off work and get it sorted out then have it blow up and then you try to explain and he says "why didn't you tell me there was a noise"

 

the post date on OP was in '09. I am curious as to what the noise ended up being though.. Anybody know?