Help! Terrible clicking in motor but it still runs

Discussion in 'Modifications & DIY how-to' started by GTscoob, Jun 8, 2007.

  1. GTscoob

    GTscoob Black is Beautiful

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    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.
     
    #1 GTscoob, Jun 8, 2007
    Last edited: Jun 8, 2007
  2. sol drums

    sol drums Active Member

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

    longfury Active Member

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

    WJM Banned

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    dont run the engine any more. its toast.

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

    techlord Active Member

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

    AWD_Tiger Member

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

    longfury Active Member

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

    Alex Community Founder
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    Spun a rod?

    Yay for 2.5L STi
     
  9. AWD_Tiger

    AWD_Tiger Member

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    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
     
  10. longfury

    longfury Active Member

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

    WJM Banned

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    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.
     
  12. GTscoob

    GTscoob Black is Beautiful

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    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.
     
  13. Trey

    Trey Active Member

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    Check your oil? :)
     
  14. GTscoob

    GTscoob Black is Beautiful

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    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. . .
     
  15. Kokopelli

    Kokopelli Active Member

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

    WJM Banned

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    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
     
  17. sm04subaruwrx

    sm04subaruwrx Member

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

    moose Infina Mooooooose!

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

    GTscoob Black is Beautiful

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    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.
     
  20. calmnothing

    calmnothing Shlimp Flied Lice
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    2.5 with your tiny vf turbo with gobs of torque + 4.44 gears and you're gonna be flying
     
  21. WJM

    WJM Banned

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    flying like...flying.
     
  22. slowwrx

    Supporting Member

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

    WJM Banned

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

    BelvnAWD I'm Vin, Bell-Vin...

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    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?
     
  25. slowwrx

    Supporting Member

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    Would you like a second to rethink that?


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

    WJM Banned

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    could have been a typeo in the FSM.

    *runs off to look again*
     
  27. slowwrx

    Supporting Member

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    Its a typo I assure you.
     
  28. FACE

    FACE Active Member

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    :wiggle: I would for sure get the 2.5
     
  29. gotsol

    gotsol Active Member

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

    siegelracing Registered Vendor<br><b><font color="#666666">bion

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

    SS
     
  31. gotsol

    gotsol Active Member

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    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.
     
  32. Kokopelli

    Kokopelli Active Member

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

    Cool_____ Banned

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    Hope everything works out for ya!
     
  34. GTscoob

    GTscoob Black is Beautiful

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    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.
     
  35. Cool_____

    Cool_____ Banned

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    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.
     
  36. WJM

    WJM Banned

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    hahahahahahahhaaha...
     
  37. siegelracing

    siegelracing Registered Vendor<br><b><font color="#666666">bion

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    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
     
  38. Slowsoul

    Slowsoul Member

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    what is the labor like on that job?


    ...thinking about the future.
     
  39. siegelracing

    siegelracing Registered Vendor<br><b><font color="#666666">bion

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

    SS
     
  40. GTscoob

    GTscoob Black is Beautiful

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    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.
     
    #40 GTscoob, Jun 23, 2007
    Last edited: Jun 23, 2007
  41. Kokopelli

    Kokopelli Active Member

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    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.
     
  42. pEd

    pEd This ain't no Piccadilly!

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    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.
     
  43. GTscoob

    GTscoob Black is Beautiful

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

    Kokopelli Active Member

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    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.
     
  45. BattleWagon

    BattleWagon Member

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

    AWD_Tiger Member

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    I Think he does run mobile 1, Why??
     
  47. GTscoob

    GTscoob Black is Beautiful

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    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.
     
  48. Davidwrx

    Davidwrx Member

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    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.
     
  49. GTscoob

    GTscoob Black is Beautiful

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    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.
     
  50. GTscoob

    GTscoob Black is Beautiful

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    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!
     

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