Ominous Engine Rattle

[warpspeed]

On saturday I had the Cerb' out for a blast, brought it back and left it on the drive, no problems encountered. In the evening I started her up and left it to warm up, no problems. When it was warm I went to reverse off the drive and an ominous rattling from the engine bay started accompanied with some backfiring. Before I perform surgery to identify the problem would someone like to hazard a guess at what this is likely to be ? Milage is 40k, it doesn't use any oil and theres no oil smoke from the pipes. Temperature and oil pressure were spot on. I was wondering if it may have dropped a valve ?!

[caduceus]

Sorry, can't help you with that one. But intrigued to hear what the culprit is
Hope its nothing too sinister mate.

Cad

[350Matt]

I've not heard of these engines dropping a valve, I think the timing chain tensioner may have wound itself out? or more sinisterly the cam sprockets could be loose on the cams....

Either way I'd pop the lids off it to have a look

Don't forget to have good look round to make sure its nothing like a loose alternator or other ancillary tho'

Matt

[morebeanz]

350Matt said:

Don't forget to have good look round to make sure its nothing like a loose alternator or other ancillary tho'

Matt

I've had several bolts (not all at once ) come lose around the engine bay - battery cover, airbox, radiator cover, etc. Often these will fall in to a convenient holding space to rattle happily around.

Check for missing items, before assuming the worst.