Hi Guys
In the hope of saving someone else a heart attack ( like I almost had today) I will share a GTV6 story.
For a while before the Beast went off the road with a spraying (note not leaking) fuel injection pipe, I would occasionally hear a ringing, pinging sound under heavy acceleration, or sometimes at low idle.
Now I originally though maybe a bit of fuel/tune pinging, but the idle one had me foxed. It was one of those sounds that didn't really sound drastic, and was on a list to do one day.
So the car went off the road at Xmas time when I noticed fuel spraying the neighbours kids when I had the bonnet up :-( a new pipe and kit was ordered from my Mate Greg in the US eventually and also eventually I had the time to fit the new pipe.
Fitted the pipe, checked the oil and coolant, visual inspection, eviction of a few 8 legged residents, battery charged and the Beast was ready to run for the first time in 4 months.
Can of "Start Ya Bastard" in hand ( I'm sure the inventor owned an Alfa), gave a few small spins over just to circulate oil, and then roar - of she went -not Start Ya Bastard required :-)
I then noticed that damn ringing pinging sound at rough idle.
The closer my head came the engine to isolate the sound, the more I could feel money leaving my wallet :-(
It was certainly near the front, was a low engine speed sound, and sounded like a mini Quasimodo hammering the inside of the water pump :-(
I moved around to the passenger side and then I saw the cause - one of my disconnected air con pipes, the type with a metal valve cover on it, was so loose, when the engine was wobbling at a low idle, was banging into the alternator fan :-)
So a tighten of some tie straps and happy days -not only was the Beast running beautifully I fixed the ugly sound without any money leaving my wallet :-)
I rushed inside to tell the Wife the good news but curiously she wasn't as excited as I was :-)
So the message, if you still have the aircon pipes on give them a look and make sure the metal bits can't hit the alternator fan.
Catch ya
Shane