All the willingness in the world is useless if you don't know where to begin. I've had great luck on this board before so I'm hoping someone will take the time to give this file a listen and help me determine what the tapping sound is. It's obviously not the TOD. I'm really REALLY hoping the engine isn't toast and that I can replace/fix something before it is.

 

History:

About 400 miles ago the water pump went out and it was replaced. Radiater is full and there aren't any water spots underneath.

 

Current:

I try to religiously check the oil [cold of course]. Checked oil, was a 1/4 low, topped off and drove 100 miles up into the Cascades. Camped. Checked oil before coming home, was a 1/4 low, topped off and came home. Checked oil the next day and there was only

a drop on the bottom of the dipstick. Confused, I topped it off and drove around town for about 3 days [40 miles or so]. Then the noise slowly started. Checked oil again and it was about 1/4 overfilled ?!?! Didn't think anything of it, ran some errands [20-30 miles], came home and checked these boards. Saw the dire warnings on overfilling the oil and freaked. [Drained oil to about half] I was hoping the noise would go away after I drained some oil but it's still there. It's not there directly at start up but withing a few seconds it's slowly gets louder.

 

Sounds like a dry engine but I'm not sure how to determine a plan of attack as I'm new to this sort of stuff. Oil pump maybe? Seals/Gaskets? Other???

 

Thanks for any and all advice !!

 

File on putfile:

 

Click here to watch Engine-noise-27

Sounds like lifter tick (TOD) to me. CHANGE the oil and filter. Check for leaks and R&R the PCV system to make sure the engine isn't just drinking all your oil on left hand turns.

 

GD

Flush it out with old oil/ some engine flush? ( I like its own old engine oil and drain it hot). You had an overheat with bad pump? is most likely the gummer stuck in there. Things will most likely reseat after clean and clean oil, using much less back to normal. The idle looked strong, engine isn't flopping around .My own hasn't stopped less than perfect idle due to an event such as yours and really bad previous owner maintenance- and still keeps quiet and consumption impressive, all by keeping clean/cool internal. I had one overheat (mild) take half a summer to get back to what I called normal. If clean oil releases bizarre engine odors for awhile, you won it back