Silvertop noisy valvetrain?

[gmacrae]

Howdy folks. The silvertop in my corolla has been making a pretty wicked rattle lately (well, almost as long as i've had the engine). I'm pretty certain its not a bottom end noise, i know what a bigend rattle sounds like and it's different, definitely sounds high up. Usually when the engine is idling, its silent, when i blip the throttle i can hear it, or if i stand hard on the brakes while idling (weird, i know)

I remember reading a while back the silvertop vvt pulley often gets noisy - could this be it? I've got a blacktop head here that i can flog the pulley from if need be, are they compatible?

Any ideas? Cheers

Gene

[CAMB01]

I'll take a stab and say yes VVT pulley, if it sounds kind of like a diesel engine?
Im not entirely 100% sure, but i think the pulleys are different, in the way of timing marks and dowel locations.

[sergei]

you could replace the whole cam shaft with the pulley.
Pulley itself from black top will not fit properly on silver top.
If replaces pulley+cam from black top into silver top, then there is no problem, apart from checking valve clearances, and swaping shims around if necessary.

[matt dunn]

I would swap a BT inlet cam for a ST inlet cam if you want.

Matt

[RS13]

Could be VVT pulley, mine was rattley as when I got my car.

Take the plug off the oil solenoid, and with the car at idle, put 12V to the solenoid. Revs will drop a little and the car might run a bit funny, but if the rattle stops then its' the pulley.

I wouldn't bother with swapping cams over, just get a low-km pulley from a Toyota wrecker, or buy a new one through the TGP man on the forums.

[gmacrae]

hrmmmm... pulleys not compatible eh... goddammit

I might just put the whole blacktop head to good use i think and swap it all over, the car has a blacktop loom and ecu anyway so it'll run better.

I assume a new vvt pulley will be a couple hundy if i were to replace it?