i was at my buddies house and i parked next to a bonnie just like mine. So when i left, the guy was out there and his wife was outside the car and they were both listning to the engine. I asked if they needed some help...even thought i don't know much... and i went over and listened. He had a 94' SE with a series II engine. The was a loud knocking noise. really loud about every 2 seconds a loud tick coming right front under the 3800 series sign on the engine cover. He said he got the engine put in last weekend with 60k on it. I told him about the site, he wrote it down and told me he didnt have the internet but he will sign up next time it is avail. He asked if i would ask the club if they had any clues on what this is. I told him to take the damn thing back to who put it in..but i am still intrested on what it could be..??

Was it one lone knock every few seconds or a steady ticking that came in and faded out?
SOunds like valve train? bent push rod?

tick tick tick tick every two seconds.. never stoped. Didnt sound good.

thats what a fuel injector sounds like up close...lol, dont know if that will constitute for anything at all

Every two seconds? If it was the same as engine speed we could look at the rotating mass, half engine speed and maybe lifters and cam associated parts..but every 2 seconds? Are you sure its not more frequent? I mean are you just generalizing with 2 seconds or is it really? Does it increase with RPM or go away? Also are we talking about two different sounds? You called it a knock then a tick, in engines those are two completely different sounds and one is way worse than the other. A tick can be any number of relatively harmless things from piston slap, injector noise, very loose timing belt, or lifter tap. A knock is generally much worse with things like rod knock, excessive crank play, worn wrist pins or a host of other "needs rebuild" problems.

This is rod knock: http://www.turbo4wd.com/movies/EngineClanking.mpg

Generally not something at idle but if its bad enough it will. Give as much detail as you can about the noise and it may be easier to diagnose.

more like a tick... now that i think about it probley more like every second or half a second... he didnt rev it up or anything it was just in park. i didnt want him to cause more problems cuz i had no idea what it was and he was clueless too. hwen i told him about the site he souded really intrested and his wife kept asking the name of it and then wrote it down. hopfully we'll here it from him.. but my quess he is gonne take the car back in seeing how the engine has only been in there for a few days..

bent rod

its a noisy lifter

there is a few backyard tricks to rid the sound
1) is to change the oil and filter fill the oil to reccomended spec minus one quart of oil and add a ouart of tranny fluid drive around for 1000miles drain and fill with regular oil and the sound should be gone

If the car runs fine, my guess is its the injectors. The sound may be different enough from the S1 engine he was used to. If the car isn't running well are there any codes?