This isn't meant to be a pity post by any means but I have about had it.
Once again, I will be making an appearance in Carlisle as an onlooker as opposed to a partint. I have just spent the last five weeks working on the '88. I replaced the lifters, gaskets, engine harness, various broken connectors including the tfi plug not to mention other hoses and minor stuff of that sort. So I put the car back together, fill her up with antifreeze and low and behold, my radiator was leaking. Thankfully I got one from Jim (thundr306) a while back so I didn't have to hunt down. I get the thing installed and all seems good. I fire up the car and it sounds beautiful. I double checked everything, reset the timing (I had to pull the distributor- another long story) and headed out on the road.
When what do my ears hear when I get back? The wonderful tone of a rod knock.
First thing you'll all say is "It took you 5 weeks to do all that!"
Keep these in mind...
1. Full time work and school
2. I rareley if ever get home before dark
3. I don't have a garage
4. I only have every other weekend off of work.
I give up. I have two weeks before Carlisle, a registration in, a hotel reserved and no car to take.
My '86 you ask? Well that needs too much work for the time and money I have left.
I could just drive the car. It might be alright but then again it might not. Besides, I have no desire to be coasting around with the audible knocking to let everyone know where I am.
Unless I manage to pull a rabbit out of my hind side, There's a pretty good bet the show's off for me. I will be walking through like last year. Might just go one day as opposed to all three but I'll be there.
Hate to hear it Fred.
Did you have oil pressure during this drive?
Yeah, everything was fine.
I've had a knock/tap for a little while and everyone I went to for opinions told me it had to be the lifters. Apparently not. My lifters were bad when I pulled them so I was hoping they were right. When I first fired the car up, all the knocking was gone so I thought that was it. It just took a while before the motor warmed up fully to be clearly audible.
I'm starting a second job in a couple weeks so over the next year I'll either rebuild this block or I'm getting a crate motor.
When we first started up my HO, it was knocking and it sounded like that too, but after we ran the engine a couple of times, it went away; probably just bubbles in the oil gettin through.
are you sure its a rod knock?
I'm not 100% sure it's a rod knock but it's all I can think of. If its not, its something else internal. The heads were reworked a couple years back so I don't think anything broke in them. I know the bottom end hasn't had a terrific life so thats where I'm shooting the problem to be.
I'll give it an oil change and see if that helps but I doubt it will. I'm just going to have to live with it until I can afford to fix it.
I'm not so frustrated that it has an issue, I was just really looking forward to taking it to Carlisle.
a cracked flexplate can almost sound like a rod knock. check all the engine accessories. i've heard some horrid noises come out of smog pumps. is there possibly a dent in the oil pan? or the flexplate cover can make noises if bent. just a shot in the dark. take off your serp belt and see if the noise goes away. also did you ever lose oil pressure?
when you change the oil use 20w50 and add some lucas oil stabilizer.
The oil pressure was okay. I'll pick up a mechanical gauge and check it that way though. I know I shouldn't go by the digi gauge on the cluster...
I always use 20W50 in there but haven't messed with stabilizer. Maybe I'll try that.
I'm sure it's nothing with the acessories but I can double check that. I tried the ole wooden stick technique and pinpointed the sound around the #7 cylinder.
pull off one plug wire at a time. if the knock goes away then its that cylinder. noises can travel what sounds like #7 can be #3. also pull the valve covers and physically look at the rocker arms. they can get pretty loud if loose.
did you get a chance to check it out?
Haven't had the time yet. All I managed to get done so far was an oil change. I'll look into it this weekend.
how'd it turn out? did you find anything?
Fred I once had a loose rocker nut on the 350 (gasp) in my Monte Carlo. It made enough noise to make me think it was a rod nock.
Oil pressure is fine. Everything that I can do on the outside checks out. Right now the plan is to start tearing into it later this summer. I'll begin by pulling the heads and having them checked and if all that comes out fine, I'll tear into the block. Plus I'll have an extra cash flow coming in starting in a couple weeks to fund it all.
At this moment, I'm just trying to get the car out to Carlisle at the end of the week.
Thanks for the input guys.
Too bad you couldn't post up a vid of it running. I've heard rod knock enough to be able to spot it right away.
Oh and if the sound goes away as rpms climb it shouldn't be rod knock. If it was rod knock the sound would get worse at higher rpms.
I know when we starting firing up dad's 383, there was one rocker that kept coming out of adjustment and making a terrible knocking sound. It took several tries to get it adjusted correctly, but once it was, the sound went away.
If I have a chance I'll try to get a vid up of it.
I'm sure the guys in Carlisle will have a good chuckle about it.
Anyway Lou, I was thinking it had to be a rod knock... it sounded all too similar to my dad's motor on his old Ram before it blew which had a rediculous rod knock in it. On the other hand, I don't hear it until the motor warms up some. From then on it's audible from around 1,000 rpms to 2,500 and then you really don't hear it anymore. The best way to describe the sound in that range would be Quint's boat when he's pushing it to the limit in Jaws... if you know what I mean.
It could be a rocker but I'm thinking of that not being the issue since it knocked before the lifter swap and after the lifter swap which required me to remove all the rockers.
This is just leading me to believe there is something amiss in the head. But despite all that, the car runs fine. I think I've done enough speculation on it, I most likely won't know for sure until I tear into it. The only thing I do know for sure is that I can cross the lifters off the list since I was advised to start there.
Well at least it runs :D