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Whirring noise near front of engine

2K views 10 replies 5 participants last post by  Bluesulfur 
#1 ·
Hi all,
My boyfriend owns a 2007 GXP (I own a Redline) and we recently had his valve cover, intake manifold, and charge tubes powdercoated. We got the car back together and it idled very rough and ran very lean. Checked for vacuum leaks and swapped the o2 sensor with the one off of my car (it kept throwing a code for the sensor). No luck until I by chance slapped the filter on over the CAI (we had an old pipe on for troubleshooting as his powdercoated pipes have the MAF relocated and we wanted to make sure the car ran fine before throwing in an additional tune and another factor to worry about). So good news, car steadied right out and seemed to be 100%. Took it for a very short, low speed cruise and when we got back noticed a whirring noise coming from the front of the engine. It is also, about once every 30 seconds or so, dropping a/f ratio to about 10.2, running rich, and then steadying back out. Any possible clues as to what our issue may be? Any way we could have affected the timing chain by simply swapping out the valve cover??? One more clue that is pertinent. As we were lowering the valve cover back onto the car it sounded as if something dropped down into the front of the motor. There was nothing on the valve cover that could have fallen in there and there was nothing sitting on top of the chains. Everything looked in place and knowing there was nothing we left lying anywhere close to there we went ahead with the install. Any help?
 
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#5 · (Edited)
Lol, well I spoke too soon earlier. The noise never reappeared but we were still having issues with the idle being too low, oil pressure being too low, and the HPFP never slowing down from its rapid click cycle. Traced most of it down to a wire that had become disconnected from a connector we put in when trying to install a WOT box per the instructions on their website. Big mistake, follow the advice on the forum as their instructions are not accurate at all! Anyway we got the wire hooked back up and it solved our o2 sensor issue and the idle picked up along with the oil pressure. I'm thinking the pressure was so low due to the engine trying to idle around 500-700 RPMs. Now our only issue is the car is idling too high and the HPFP still won't stop the rapid click cycle. We disconnected the battery last night so the ECM can relearn itself when we crank it up this morning. Hopefully it will solve the rest of our issues (fingers and toes crossed!!!)
 
#7 ·
Could the whirring noise be the cooling fan? maybe you knocked or damaged it in the changeout and it's now unbalanced or something rubbing, maybe. Would explain not hearing it all the time - only when the engine is warm.

Turn the A/C on & off - which will turn the fan on too - see if the whirring sounds follows.
 
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