VE SSV V8 Engine Ticking

[Stig]

Hi Guys,Girls....Had first service Today for my 2012 ssv and asked them to check out the ticking from Engine.They inform me its the Harmonic Balancer and are quite happy to replace it under Warranty.I remember reading on here people saying its Injector Tick or Noisy Lifters...Have had it for a long time and a lot of people say its normal.They say its got a Slight Wobble and they changed the H.Balancer on the VF,so I would be getting one of those.
What do you Guys think? Thank You...

 

['ssv']

Have a look at your HB. Is it wobbling?

 

['ssv']

Sorry for being blunt, do you know what your harmonic balancer looks like? Its the main large pully at the bottom of the front of your engine.

I find using my mobile phone's video recorder a great way to find out where little niggling noises are coming from.
This is just a suggestion. I dont recommend you stick your hand infront of the engines belt while the engine is running.

Maybe take off the turttle shell engine cover, start the car and run your phone slowly over the top of the left and right bank of the engine.
You should be able to hear different sounds if an injector or lifter is louder then the others.

 

[HEXEM]

typical problem for the 6.0ltr engines. Harmonic balancer wont make a ticking noise, it just develops a wobble. When they get work they can throw a belt.

The tick could be just louder than normal injector tick. The Bosh injectors on the Gen4 6.0ltr is common. The issue might be normal for the engines, but only because they are put together poorly with varying degrees of tolerance (to wide) so you get some that are noisy **** sounding like an old holden red motor which has done 500k klms, then others are just sweet and sound nice. Basically these 6.0ltr engines should not be making "abnormal" noises. Otherwise if it was normal, they'd all do it.

Holden have many techlines/service bulletins regarding engine knock/lifter tick etc. Its getting the ####ers to agree the issue is not considered to be "normal" for an engine produced in the 21st century.

You can either put up with it, try a thicker oil (only masks the problem) spend the coin and get it fixed by a professional (not holden) or try for several months going back and forth with Holden to get it fixed under warranty. Personally if I had the spare money (3k) to throw at my previous 6.0ltr engine when it started knocking on start-ups I would have. It would have saved me the heartache of having to deal with incompetent holden technical and mechanics that just couldn't get it right each time a new engine was agreed to (4 of them). The managed to #### things up each time.

Now I drive an SV6 2012 model. No knock of lifter tick noises for me. Post a good video of the noise for us to hear.

Good luck with it.

 

[Stig]

Good idea SSV will try the Video Tommorow to pinpoint where the noise is coming from..Thanks Hexem for the very informative Answer,not a big Fan of the Holden Techs or should I say Trained Monkeys Either..So you went through 4 Engines and they all Ticked or Knocked?
How did you get them to AGREE to that many Engines,thought it would be a struggle just to get one.

 

[HEXEM]

Yeah 4 engines including the original engine. The last engine didn't knock, it had chronic lifter tick that you could hear driving through tunnels. it was shocking... But it didn't knock like the L98s I had. The last engine was a April 2011 built L77 with revised US lifters etc. However they bastardised the engine by putting an L98 camshaft in it because holden techs (in Melbourne) said the engine wouldn't work without it. They didn't change the pushrods to suit so I guess to much preload.

I got them to do it because I kept going to the one dealer who would sort of back me up. I also stood my ground and started publishing the problem on forums and blogs like this one. It wasn't an instant, ok let change the engine, it often took months to get the Holden to agree and I always dealt with the Holden District Service Manager not the dealer manager.