Engine Noise

[Bart]

Guys,

Looking for a little advice. I'm a amateur that likes working on my fiat. Started getting a engine noise and looking to see if anyone can tell what is going on.

Its a 1981 2.0 FI. 5sp.

I changed the Distributor about 1k miles back It had a bad pickup and it had been running fine since.

Symptoms:
Noise when rev'ed in what seems like the distributor area.
A little sluggish on throttle response.

See the attached video.
https://youtu.be/ZbagFGoAFAM

Thanks and any thoughts would help.

Bart

[tima01864]

Is the rotor screwed on tight?

[joelittel]

It’s worth checking anything with a nut and bolt. Sometimes we incorrectly identify symptoms and chase our tails. By checking everything that could be loose you might stumble across the culprit.

I’ve solved more than one seemingly unsolvable issue with my car by simply stepping back and addressing the little things first.

Also, go back to the last thing you worked on and double check everything. Many times my new issues have been a direct result to something I already “fixed.”

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Here's what I heard: Some valve clatter on startup, and a thicker weight oil might help there. Not too bad as far as the clatter, but try some 10w-40 or 20w-50, or different oil brands. After that, the noise was a definite metal-on-metal scraping, and my first thoughts were the flywheel hitting the spacer plate, or something in the distributor area as you mentioned. Check your distributor.

-Bryan

[SteinOnkel]

My money is on the rotor in the distributor. We had a similar case the other day. New part was improperly manufactured, and the rotor scraped across one of the contacts. Sounded virtually identical.

Cheers
Steiny

[RRoller123]

I purchased a distributor cap a few years ago and upon inspection, found that the contact tabs inside were molded in improperly, completely off being concentric by maybe .100" !! It was obvious, some were buried deeply in the plastic, some were protruding. The part of the injection mold that holds the contacts was just not right on this particular part, probably slipped or whatever. The contact circle was on a different axis than the rotor. I handed it back to the irritated clerk, showed and explained that if this was installed and the car started, it would have likely cause serious damage. I got another one, inspected it before leaving the store, and it looked and worked fine. I bet that cap went right back on the retail shelf....

[wubie317]

Just watched the vid...definitely sounds like a shaky distributor rotor...but the clicking on load sounds to me like a bad exhaust manifold gasket!

[Odoyle]

When you say you changed the distributor with the bad pick-up, did you replace the entire distrubtor with a new one? Or just replace the magnetic pick-up wire? And after you 'changed the distributor' did you connect a timing light and adjust the timing to 10 degrees?

[PaulC]

Scored dizzy contacts on new cap due to offset contacts ( made a clacking sound) in the cap

[RRoller123]

That sure looks like mechanical damage. Yep, like I said, I had this happen a few years ago. We need to remember to check the caps in the store visually before accepting them.

[wetminkey]

I guess that I'm not the only one that has had this problem in the past:

Beware,...

[RRoller123]

The high pressure injection molds are a little complicated to make these parts, they must insert and hold the contact points (4 in this case) in the exact correct position, without allowing material to be deposited on the faces of the contacts, and held accurately concentric around the rotational axis. It looks like they either get it wrong, or the molds wear, shift or are incorrectly set up, more than we realize?