Does my car sound healthy?

[Deemar]

The car sat for 13 years without even being started. I bought it and changed the water pump, timing belt, balance belt and pulleys. I drained the gas, put in new gas, changed the oil and oil filter. I also changed the coolant and battery. Before starting it, I made sure everything was timed correctly, including the flywheel, cam gear, upper balance pulley and lower balance pulley. Everything was then torqued down, I reinstalled the timing belt cover and air box.

Today I started it with the intention to run it to temperature but it sounds like there's a ticking noise somewhere. Could it be stuck lifters? Could it be the terrible sound of pistons hitting valves even though I timed it all? This is the first video.

About 5 minutes later when it started getting warm, I heard something knocking behind the timing belt cover, below the cam cover. Does it sound like just the belt hitting the plastic cover? What is that sound in the second video?

[barnwerks]

That does not sound healthy. I recommend using a mechanics stethoscope or a long screwdriver, handle pressed to ear, to track down the source area of the sound. There are ticking sounds that are normal for these cars. Injectors and dry lifters are mostly responsible for these but the hollow bell sound in the second clip is more serious. Perhaps remove the upper timing cover to see the belts and rollers in action. Determining the frequency of the sound can be helpful too. How many times per second does the sound happen? That can then be used to calculate how many times per revolution and that can tell us if the sound occurs at camshaft speed, crankshaft speed or balance shaft speed.
Has the cylinder head been off the engine?

[Deemar]

That does not sound healthy. I recommend using a mechanics stethoscope or a long screwdriver, handle pressed to ear, to track down the source area of the sound. There are ticking sounds that are normal for these cars. Injectors and dry lifters are mostly responsible for these but the hollow bell sound in the second clip is more serious. Perhaps remove the upper timing cover to see the belts and rollers in action. Determining the frequency of the sound can be helpful too. How many times per second does the sound happen? That can then be used to calculate how many times per revolution and that can tell us if the sound occurs at camshaft speed, crankshaft speed or balance shaft speed.
Has the cylinder head been off the engine?

Not while I've owned it. I watched a few videos last night and one person said their cause was a loose idler pulley which does make sense. I'll take the cover off today and run it again to check if I can visually see what's causing it. It really does sound like something inside knocking against the plastic cover.

[944m3]

Sitting for that long I would be weary of all the rubber gaskets that keep oil from mixing with coolant. The head gasket would also fall into that category. My car sat for about ~10 yrs when I bought it and head gasket was rusted. My oil cooler housing gasket was also shot.

Just keep an eye out for any fluid mixing.

[Deemar]

There's a new puddle under the car after I ran it but I'm not sure what it is and it's not leaking rapidly. I'm assuming coolant as that's the only liquid I added yesterday, it's had oil for a week now. I'll check into it all tonight and report back later.

[Deemar]

I took off the belt cover and I can see there is a lot of movement in the timing belt, I think it's too loose. I'm guessing it warms up and slaps against the cover so I'm going to tighten it up and try again.

All the YouTube videos tell you a tough-but-still-turnable water pump is where it should be. They also state that too loose is better than too tight but I guess I went far too loose.

[944m3]

You want to be to pluck it like a guitar string. Van’s video is of the best I’ve seen describing it.

[Deemar]

Huge update, the car runs and sounds great!
The slapping sound was indeed the timing belt being too loose. I tightened up the belt so that I could barely turn the water pump by hand and the next time it fired up it was amazing. The RPM was idling just under 1000 and not jumping around at all. The temperature made its way up to 3/4 after 10 minutes when the radiator fans finally came on and it held at 3/4 until around the 15 minute mark. I decided that was enough proof the cooling system was working and I was starting to run out of gas so I shut it off.

I did not bleed the coolant system so I was a little surprised it was working by simply filling it up to the MAX mark but it appears to be working.

Thanks to everyone for all of your help, I'm sure I'll be posting here again with the simpler stuff once I start digging. I know there's a puddle under the car and I'm not sure why yet.

[944m3]

There's a new puddle under the car after I ran it but I'm not sure what it is and it's not leaking rapidly. I'm assuming coolant as that's the only liquid I added yesterday, it's had oil for a week now. I'll check into it all tonight and report back later.

Double check it’s not coming from oil cooling housing. This is what exactly happened to me and probably caused a spun bearing.

[Deemar]

I'm going to drive it very occasionally to see if what I've done so far has gotten it into a working state and also to check if the rest of the drivetrain works as well. I haven't driven the car at all yet so I'm just crossing my fingers it works.

Will I need to drain the oil to take off that oil cooler or can I do it with full oil?