a noise- annoying or harbinger of doom?

[capnjoe]

My Scorpion has been making a new noise, never a welcome thing. This is a pretty high pitched singing sound, from the engine, upon starting from cold and usually resolving soon. I've heard it some when the car was warm, but not as much.

It's not the water pump (replaced yesterday) although the pump also was bad.

The pitch of the sound does not change with engine revs, ruling out timing tensioner (recently changed) and alternator, I think.

What about the fuel pump? What else turns at constant rpm in the engine compartment? All the smog stuff and the A/C are long gone.

Hope someone can say "Oh yeah, mine did that" (and it was cheep to fix...)

Thanks, Joe

[ecohen2]

Is it more of a mechanical whine like gears or is it a friction sound like something is rubbing?

[capnjoe]

It's a whine sound- rather high pitched

[Will]

Could it be a vacuum leak whistle?

Typical scenario is that a previous owner rips out the smog stuff and replaces with vacuum caps, or my favorite, short hoses with bolts stuffed in the end.

Then air gets into exhaust through the crappy OEM exhaust coupling, the car makes a nice backfire that scares the heck out of the new owner, and blows off one or more vacuum caps from the (usually intake manifold towards firewall).

Or, the vac caps just dry up and crack or rot off.

Then the car runs funny and makes an odd sqealaing noise, or, if it's the bigger hose, refuses to run at all unless floored.

When I hear a noise on a scorpion that is anywhere beteween a whoosh and a sqeal, that does not change pitch with the motor, I look for a vac leak on the inlet manifold.

[capnjoe]

that sounds very reasonable Will, I don't have smog and I do have a few of the aforementioned caps. I'll check on that. Thanks, Joe

[Wallace]

I know this sounds daft - butv a really good way to pinpoint the noise is to use a couple of feet of hose - one end in your ear and the other directed around the engine . .safer too !

[capnjoe]

Excellent advice, I will try it. I poked around this past weekend a bit without success. Cheers, Joe