Noisy tappets after head gasket change...

[smartphone hater]

Deluded said:

Proceedure with this engine is to lock the cam into position (special tool which only locks in one position) and then you set the pistons to MDC, or all pistons in level. Atleast this is what all of the owners forums & haynes say. This is how I have timed it but as I said, the timing was set with the pistons staggered before (I locked the cam into place before removing the head).

I don't have any experience with your car so really can't advise, but surely there has to be a mark or some way of knowing that the engine is in line with the locked cam. Can't you start the timing process from scratch following the manual?

[Deluded]

There are no markings. Fiat dealers use special tools which show the position of the pistons but you can use 4 equall length dowels and put them through the spark plug holes and turn the crank. Once the dowels are all level, so are your pistons. Obviously more of a crude way to do this but it is essentially the same thing that the fiat tools do.

The cam is locked into position using a special tool which only allows the cam to be locked into this specific position. Once the pistons are lined up and the cam is locked into position, the timing is correct.

This is what I did.

But as said, I would assume that prior to removing the head, locking the cam would put the engine in this correctly timed position, but when I removed the head, the pistons wern't aligned level so I assumed the timing was previously incorrect so retimed the engine as above when reassembling.

[Superhoop]

If it's not a safe engine, and the timing is 2 teeth out, you stand a fairly real chance of valves contacting pistons - Valves just touching a piston sounds like a rattly top end.

If it were me, I'd be rechecking the cam timing, as of it is out,, you'll be looking at some major expense to put things right