Lots of valve noise

I just recently purchased and by recently I mean 2 days ago a 1975 242 thats had a motor swap done. The B.A.R label on the door says that in 98 the put a 1982 2.1 motor in it. Im new to the whole turbo thing and all I know is that its turbo ( water cooled), Its a 5 Speed, Its intercooled, and as far as Im concerned its fast. Now that I,ve rambled heres my question The car clacks alot and has alot of valve noise. It lopes at an idle a little so Im assuming it has a cam in it but is vlave noise common in a turbo volvo? I have alot of mechanical experience but none with volvos especially not turbos. Is this motor a solid or hydraulic lifter motor? also I pulled the valve cover off and decided I needed some seriuos help, if they are adjustable how do you do it? Im used to motors with rocker arms. As far as I can tell its stock but I dont know what Im looking at. Please some of you volvo veterans help me out.

valve noise

These ohc engines may make a little noise when they are older but you should not have loud clacking going on in there. The valve lash is adjusted by measuring the clearance and if it's off you remove the shims which are on top of the solid follower. Then you measure the shim or read it's size if it's still on there and add or subtract the amount to make the clearance correct and install a shim that size in the lifter. To change the shims you need the tool to press the follower down and either use shim pliers or a strong magnet to remove the shim.

There are also little rubber buffers called valve hushers by Volvo which are installed on top of the valve tip under the follower. The quiet the valve train. Maybe these are old and dried up needing to be replaced? Just be sure to adjust your valve clearance first if you do change the hushers. New ones are nice and thick which can cause you to make incorrect valve clearance measurement. The angled feeler gauge set is nice to use to measure the valve lash.

Cool thanks Ill try that. Where do I get the Valve Hushers and Shims if needed. Im one of those people that when a car makes a noise it shouldnt you might as well be running your fingers down a chaulk board.Oh and where can I get my hands on the tool to push the follower down?

IPD rents the tool

I think you can get a set of hushers seperate from the head gasket set from volvo, they usually come in a head gasket set/rebuild kit

I installed an ipd turbo cam about 2 years ago or so and clearances were a bit loose (.018-.020). I had noticed the valve noise to be a bit noisy and today I just did all new shims and all clearances are .015"-.018". No hushers here but it still seems a bit noisy above 2.5k rpms. Noisier than any of the other redblock cars I have with stock cams.

Question is, is this more 'aggressive' cam likely to be a bit noisier by nature, even with correctly adjusted valves?

I find it easiest to measure to determine what shims need to be changed then remove the cam to allow easy access to R&R the beast.

True, that involves undoing the timing belt but those are pretty inexpensive and should be changed

If it sounds like a sewing machine, it's "normal". Any other loud noises coming from the valve train, there's an issue.

Any clues as to what could be causing this noise? As stated above I had ran the iPd turbo cam a bit loose for a while and it was a little noisy but nothing extreme at all. Then did a valve adjustment and got all 8 valves well within spec. Does not sound very good though. Please watch in HD to get the most accurate sound. Noise is much worse around 2500 or so.

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I set the valve lashes all on a stone cold motor and will probably check them again soon before any long road trips.

Noise only started to occurr after the valve adjustment.

I use 015-016" to keep them a bit more even. Adjusted cold. An 018" measurement I would try to get that .002" smaller with a different shim. An exhaust leak can sound like a loud valve.

Man this is an old thread. lol.

^But nowhere near as ancient as the ones Jack was dredging up... Probably doing it wile downing straight Vodka.

I've cut down the lash to .014 with no ill results, Installed an IPD cam in my wife car for a customer and ended up buying the car 1 year later [2001]. When I checked the lash this winter they were still in spec. No lash is not good to much and they clack plus with to much lash you loose valve duration.

PromiseRing said:

Question is, is this more 'aggressive' cam likely to be a bit noisier by nature, even with correctly adjusted valves?

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My ipd cam definitely sounds different, but it is not "clacking" adjusted on cold motor, removed hushers and set all to .015 and .016

But immediately after install I test drove and was very suprised the difference in the sound when the rpm goes higher than 3k

dl242gt said:

I use 015-016" to keep them a bit more even. Adjusted cold. An 018" measurement I would try to get that .002" smaller with a different shim. An exhaust leak can sound like a loud valve.

Man this is an old thread. lol.

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I don’t think I had any that were smaller than .015”, and none bigger than .018” (mayyybe .019”). I don’t really see why it sounds like the top end is not healthy. Even with all clearances a hair on the loose side it was never really that noisy. And even then, the noise was obviously just loose clearances. After adjusting the valves to spec the noise is just weird.

The sound from 3k rpms and up with a street performance cam like the V15 or IPD cam is like you got a whole new engine. A nice wide powerband with smoothness all around.

dl242gt said:

The sound from 3k rpms and up with a street performance cam like the V15 or IPD cam is like you got a whole new engine. A nice wide powerband with smoothness all around.

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Mine from 3k is a bad noise though. Lol