4EFE making noises

[adam_d]

Hi everyone,

I'll start off by saying I have a Corolla G6, not a Starlet. (Hopefully this won't get me kicked out. ) I do have the right engine though, and bought it with longer term intentions to do an FTE swap. I've been lurking around for a couple of weeks as this seems the best place for help with the 4E.

I've only had it a few weeks and it's proving to be a bit of a sod, it had a blown head gasket when I got it but it had been bodged up with sealant, so ran alright for 500 miles before it made itself known. Fortunately it had blown between a coolant passage and atmosphere, so I noticed the water flying out the side of the engine before it did any damage.

Got that sorted out and it's holding it's coolant now, but it's making a weird noise that's worrying me slightly. I've got a video of it below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9y_617cWFw

This only really happens under load between 2000-2500 RPM in 4th gear or higher. I've purposely lugged it a little bit for the video. I've never heard an engine pinging/knocking properly in person, so I'm not sure if this is what's happening. I'm hoping not, as this has the distributorless setup with the coils and crank sensor. so I'm not sure where I'd start looking. It has no fault codes logged so I assume the Knock sensor is OK, although I don't know if the car was overheated before I got it and it was perhaps damaged.

I'm slightly more paranoid about this after the head gasket thing, so if anyone could offer any advice on it it would be much appreciated. I can stick some pictures up of the knackered old gasket if it interests anyone, I'd never heard of one going on a standard 4E in the way that it did.