Help! Terrible clicking in motor but it still runs

Just got back in town from my parents house and right about at the I-20 exit I hear this tapping/clicking sound from the drivetrain. The motor still runs but feels a little down on power, anybody have a guess? The sound was inaudible under 3000 revs but sounds terrible thereafter.

I'll probably take a better look at it at midnight when I get out of work.

 

yikes! is it a constant sound or does it start and stop at certain rpms?

 

Sounds like it might be time for a shortblock. I hope not but it sounds like something on the bottom end.

 

dont run the engine any more. its toast.

most likely you've already toasted the heads and cams as well.

 

OUCH...for your sake I hope Will is wrong. But then again w/2.5 you will have one bad whaghun!

 

DAMN dude... i hope will is wrong:eek4:

 

Thinking the timing belt slipped? I was thinking a rod or crank bearing.

 

Possibility, his car was an auto, but he converted it to a 5 speed. apparently the manuals have extra timing belt tentioners to prevent slippage during shifts.:dunno

 

I am just curious as to what Will thinks it is.

 

If the timing belt slipped, there'd be bent valves and the engine would not run at all.

Rod knock means the engine is still capable of running...

When a bearing in the engine fails, it visits every other bearing on its way to the bottom of the oil pan...usually when it gets there, it goes and makes another visit...and another, and another....and so on.

Since it goes and visits every bearing...that means that ALL of them get FUCKED in the process. You cant have oil and bearing material lubricating a bearing. it just doesnt work.

In the mean time, the oil filter cant do a damned thing since it has long since stopped up with bearing material and its bypass is open since there is enough pressure to open it since its all stopped up otherwise.

I give you a 0.1% chance that your heads and cams are still ok to reuse.
99.9% of the time in the case of a car that comes in with a constant knock, it needs heads and cams. On the cases of a 'random' knock...or a predictable knock that is not present at all times...its around 50/50.

 

I think I'm just going to leave the car parked for the weekend, I'm heading to Canada for the F1 race, I'll worry about it more on monday.

Car's been stage 4 for ~35K miles with lots of drag passes from the previous owner.

 

Check your oil?

 

Dipstick looked fine earlier but I havent had enough time to check much more. Nothing is leaking from the block.

Will, if the heads/cams are trashed due to knock, is it possible that the shortblock is still fine? I guess on a plus note I just got a raise at work. . .

 

I know where there is a v8 sti longblock for 3500.

 

Usually not....unless you spend the time and money to have it hot-tanked (cleaned) and the cyl bores rehoned and all that jaz. The time and money spent in refurbishing a trashed block is about usually more expensive than buying a new one....2.5 or 2.0

 

In my first WRX an engine rod got bent and it clicked everytime I got over 3000 rpm.

 

Gruppe-S sells JDM FXT engines for $3k.

 

They've also got a nice built EJ207 out of a JDM Legacy for $1800. I dont really want a 2.5 but I might end up settling for one since they're cheaper.

 

2.5 with your tiny vf turbo with gobs of torque + 4.44 gears and you're gonna be flying

 

flying like...flying.

 

2.5 is the way to go, displacement and stroke are youre friends

 

stroke is same as ej205. 75mm. its the bore. 92 vs 99.5

 

Sorry to hear it Bobby, with what you went through during the tranny swap, this has got to be disappointing. On a side note, where did you park the car?

 

Would you like a second to rethink that?


They are not the same stroke, 75mm for the 2.0, 79mm for the 2.5

 

could have been a typeo in the FSM.

*runs off to look again*

 

Its a typo I assure you.

 

:wiggle: I would for sure get the 2.5

 

ticking and the car is down on power? Is there a chance you have a leak in the exhaust before the turbo??

 

^^^ What said, or make sure spark plugs are all the way in.

SS

 

Craig had a ticking and his car was down on power. It turns out the stud a shop used to fill the uppipe temp probe hole backed out.

 

That exact thing happened to mattprzy at the last dyno day. I thought his poor car was going to die on the dyno.

 

Hope everything works out for ya!

 

Just got back into town. I'm about to go pull the spark plugs out and look at them for a basic diagnosis. Scott, be expecting a call from me later on this week; I'd like to go out to lunch and talk about various engine setups.

 

Let me see if I can quote SS.

GTScoob: what engine sw.....
SS: 2.5L
GTScoob: What if I want to stay 2.0......
SS: 2.5L
GTScoob: WHat.....
SS: 2.5L

Hahaha. Scott I'm picking on ya man. I was bugging (well I still do) SS one day asking tons of questions about swaps and he kept going back to the 2.5L.

 

hahahahahahahhaaha...

 

Just go proven.
If you want to stay cheap, just a 2.5 shortblock. ($1550 plus everything that needs to be replaced)
Got a little more money, add DPR Stage 2 cams. ^^^ plus $800 plus $400 for valvetrain setup + buckets
Got a little more, go ej257 longblock (we have 3 more at $4900) and leave the AVCS alone.
Got a little more and don't have to worry about emissions, EJ257 long and hydra ^^^ plus $1900 for Hydra
Wanna be pimpy, buy the EJ257 motor assembly we have here for $5k, add the sti wiring harness that I have and... wait, just do a 2.5 shortblock with cams and be done.

Or the harsh reality of how to get a truly trackable car the easy way - cheap used wrx motor, sell the whole car and buy an STi. I know it stinks to hear, but in addition to the 2.5 liter, good cams, AVCS, ability to pass emissions, you also get the unbreakable 6mt, diffs and brakes...

Or just do the 2.5 shortblock and cams...

SS

 

what is the labor like on that job?


...thinking about the future.

 

$1970 for the block swap + $394 for the valvetrain setup.

SS

 

Just finished a compression test. 130psi on cylinders 3 and 4, 120psi on cylinder 1 and 125psi on cylinder 2. These were on a completely cold motor with all the spark plugs removed; I dont have a service manual in front of me but I seem to remember that they should be upwards of 140psi per cylinder.

I'm about to crawl up under the car and check out the exhaust manifold with a flashlight and look for cracks. To specify when I said it was down on power, I didnt take the car over 3K revs, but it seemed like it was more likely to stall when starting from a stop; I had to give it a lot more gas to get it rolling, especially when getting it up onto the trailor.

 

From the service manual:


9) Perform at least two measurements per cylinder,
and make sure that the values are correct.
Compression (350 rpm and fully open throttle):
Standard;
951- 1,147kPa(9.7- 11.7kgf/cn?, 138-
166 psi)
Limit;
834 kPa (8.5 kgf/cd, 121 psi)
Difference between c linders;
49 kPa (0.5 k g f / c d 7 psi)


Your numbers don't seem like the end of the world for a cold motor.

 

From what I know of it, while the compression numbers do matter, what matters most is the difference
between the cylinders. I wouldn't think that the numbers you posted were too bad at all, considering it's cold motor #'s.

 

Drained the oil and had some gasoline in the oilpan too but no metal shavings.

 

Boost leak maybe? My car ran super rich when my turbos compressor cover was leaking. It also ran like crap when one of the ic hoses came loose.

 

any update on this? are you runnign mobile 1 by chance?

 

I Think he does run mobile 1, Why??

 

Yeah the car's been running Mobil 1 for the last 40K miles I believe. I had just switched to Royal Purple 2 weeks before all of this since I had heard that Mobil 1 was no longer considered a top-tier oil.

 

There are a lot of posts on NASIOC of 1. Mobile 1 with a high failure of connecting rod bearings and 2. Oil consumption. I think the general feeling is that the standard M1 5W-30 and 10 W-30 are very thin and may not protect well.

Now, Royal Purple, I am not sure of. I thought it was highly regarded.

 

Interesting. I normally run 5w30 or 10w30 but there was one time a year or so ago when I had to run 15w50 for a couple weeks since I couldnt find any 5w30.

I never had any issues with oil burning but I had entertained the idea that swapping to another brand of oil might have been a cause.

 

Checked out the oil again today and after it all settled there were a bunch of small metal chunks and fine gold powder on the bottom of the pan. Spun bearing. Time for some JDM powa!