1990 2wd.
weird howling sound on start up. It goes away after 10 seconds but I can hear it faintly at idle. Not loud like it is at cold start though.
belts are new and tension is good. Seems like it’s coming from the top of the motor near the intake side.
anyone ever heard this sound?
new timing chain kit/water pump/oil pump etc.
thevsound was present before the kit was installed so it’s not related to the repair.

 

It's the way the fan clutch works. It spins the fan at full lockup when you first start, then frees up after a few seconds, not spinning the fan at full power. If it get's hot enough, it will make the same sound, as the fan is forced to spin at full effort.

Actually, that's good diagnostic for a bad fan clutch. If it doesn't make the whooshing sound when it's first started cold, the fan clutch is probably bad.

Does that help?
Pat☺

 

actually I figured it out. Narrowed it down to the bearing on the belt tensioner. Either the bearing or the washer is in the wrong place.
either way, it’s already fall on the coast so I’ll just remove the ac belt for now.
no more noise 😬

 

Glad you found it. I replaced my tensioner pulley with bearing a while back (wasn’t able to just find the bearing and it is pressed) and it still whined. Turns out the washer that sort of cups toward the pulley was a little bent out of shape and barely contacted the pulley at times. Very thin metal so just bent it away from the pulley and all good! That’s a sealed bearing so I guess it is just sort of a splash guard. Not really sure what good it does.