Posted by Wietse on December 18, 1998 at 11:30:15:
OK e12ers, here's the situation:
3.5 in my e12 with the following setup:
1. 282 Schrick cam and valve springs
2. 10 to 1 euro pistons
3. full motronics
4. everything is new inside
I have about 3 hours on the engine in total. Yes, I know that is nothing, but I do not want to ruin something by ignoring it. I am running some cheap 10W40 for break in, I will change it at 1K miles to synthetic. The engine runs like a dream, pulls very hard at part throttle, idles great, runs cool, does not leak. I have been really babying it. I have inspected the head with the cam cover off and everything looks great. No funny wear.
I am really struggling with what valve clearances I should be running. I started at .012 (.0304mm), but it was very noisy, I am at .0105 (.0254) now and it is much quieter, but still not as quiet as a stock 3.5. Most of valve train noise is coming from the intake side. The engine is quieter cold and as it warms up gets noisier.
Will this go away with time? Is this noise a function of the oil I am running (cheap 10W40)? Should I run even tighter valve clearances? Is this valve train noise a function of the Schrick cam and springs? Should I be patient and drive the car and look at this in 500 miles?
Please help me, I want to drive this car.
Wietse