If it is making something like that noise with no belt, you won't need to do anything with this engine because all of the rods will be on the ground soon. May as well get another engine because this one is not rebuildable.

If it is something like this sound, but only with the accessory belt connected, then some accessory has a bad bearing or the guts inside of the accessory are coming apart.

. . . but then again, you said this:

. . . so are we to understand that you replaced the water pump, AC compressor, and the alternator? . . . or that you just replaced the pulleys for all three but left the old guts of the water pump, AC compressor, and the alternator in place?

Mystery language. Who did the suggesting? Could be, but I've never heard of oil pump problems on these such as this without severe abuse, damage, mistreatment, neglect, etc. You haven't noted severe abuse, damage, mistreatment, neglect, etc. so I'll assume this has not happened.

If it turns out that it has seen severe abuse, damage, mistreatment, neglect, etc. in its life that you were unaware of that caused the oil pump to make this noise, then the current path of troubleshooting that we are doing is still the correct (and least expensive) path, and the engine is likely ruined anyways.

I can't imagine this engine'* oil pump making anything like that noise for more than a few minutes before it would give up and grenade the engine.

***AND*** if it were the oil pump making this horrendous noise, the noise would still be there with or without the belt installed.

Now it just occurred to me to ask: Does this engine have one belt or two?

I haven't yet heard if it is supercharged or not.

Can you post a picture of it? . . . especially a picture if you are standing diagonally about two feet away from the passenger-side headlamp like this?:




Moving along:

Did you do this?

​​​​​​​Did you replace the water pump (or maybe just the pulley as possibly stated above)?

Who did the determining and how did they do it?

. . . and a new question: What is the current engine oil level according to the dipstick?

It has 1 belt.

it’* not supercharged. It’* a standard 3800 series 2 engine.

it does not leak antifreeze. When I changed the tensioner it was leaking from that. It still made the noise and I put the original back on.

As I said everything that has a pulley besides the ps has been tested w a new one.

it makes 0 noise w no belt.

the jackhammer is similar to the sound but not as loud.

the engine does run beautifully besides the annoying noise. It’* a winter car mostly. I may just drive it and make sure i have AAA Plus when I drive it again. It’* either gonna go away or become more obvious what it is. 3 shop mechanics thought it’* was 3 different things and all were wrong.

Is the belt a smooth travel or does it bounce?

Someone actually removed the clutch on the AC compressor, swapped the pulley and carrier bearing, then reinstalled the clutch?!? This is almost unheard of these days, especially while it is installed on the car and especially where it is located on this car. Are you sure about this?

I'm leaning toward the power steering pump being the culprit since it hasn't been completely evaluated and is likely bad after this many years (assuming a normal amount of miles) . . . but hearing of this unlikely event where someone did several hours of impractical work on an AC compressor makes me think this wasn't done and maybe the sound id the AC compressor carrier bearing.

Maybe you can record just the sound audio-only and post this?

It'* not going to go away, and if the power steering pump or the water pump goes out it will probably drop the belt and put you in a bad situation.

This is always fun, and part of why we ask so many questions here.

What did Mechanic 1 think it was?

What did Mechanic 2 think it was?

What did Mechanic 3 think it was?

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Still on my list:

Did you (or someone else) do this? Asking because a skilled ear will hear the difference. A good power steering pump bearing will be silent. A good water pump bearing will be nearly silent. Other bearings will generally have a very smooth sound. The alternator might sound a little more noisy because of the brushes etc. If nobody has done this, then it needs to be done. A noise like what you are describing would be easy to pick up this way, except possibly if the vanes and/or wheel in the power steering pump are/is the issue.
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​​​​​​​I get that the leak was from the tensioner, but do not know for certain the status of the water pump.
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Asking this to understand the skillset of the determiner of this determination, and hopefully the reasoning about why they think this is the case even though removing the belt removes the noise. There might be a helpful clue in the answer to this.
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What is the current engine oil level according to the dipstick?

Mechanic 1. Tensioner Different one did nothing
M 2. Wp or HB pulley. I took both off and showed him he said they looked good
m 3. Wp. Put new one in nothing

oil is full always has been.

as I said new wp on did nothing.

AAA PLUS tows free for 100 miles making nothing a really bad situation. Just a temporary pain.

Sounds like a good plan!