Need Help with Wife's Car

[Dillon]

Okay, the POS has struck again. Car has actually been running pretty good for awhile, we have a coolant leak but can't find it, I'm thinking the water pump is just shot and we just fill it up every other day with water. Anyways, my wife goes to start it and it has the loudest clicking noise I've ever heard from an engine. It sounds like a hammer hitting the engine block from inside, like a really loud tapping. It speeds up as the car revs up. WTF could this be? I'm scared that its internal to the engine, but I'm not sure.

Please give me good news guys, we were planing on selling it either this month or next month, this hampers that severely, help guys!

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[1992f150]

what kind of car and year?

[Dillon]

Guess that would help eh? Its a 97 Monte Carlo with the 3.1L V6...has about 115k on the clock...

[martininsocal]

Throw it away!

[hoeker]

my race engine did that to me once last year with only an hour to race time, thought we were screwed! as it turned out all it was was a busted pushrod, pretty easy fix. so while it sounds like your engine is junk, there is still hope. get a short length of tube and use it like a stethescope to narrow down where the noise is coming from. if it's bottom end, find the nearest junkyard, if it's up top, pull the valve covers and check for problems, if you don't see anything go on the the intake. something else you could do would be to borrow the wifes strainer from the kitchen and drain the oil through it, see what kind of parts are in there.

hope this helps

www.rosshoek.com

oh yeh, you might not want to return the strainer, could be why i'm still single! LOL

[Project1500]

Water got in the piston bent a rod and now the piston is hitting the crankshaft every time the crankshaft rotates? Just a random guess.

[Ryno]

the 3.1 is a good motor. They aren't know for Hydro'ing pistons. I'm with Ross, and the pushrod, maybe a lifter knock, or an overly loose rocker arm. Another trick is a long 3/8 or 1/2 extension, same idea as Ross, you will hear and feel the vibration/ noise the closer you get.

Ryno

[Dillon]

Did an oil change today and found nasty ass orange gunk on the oil cap. The change however did solve the noise but the orange scares me, I have a feeling my coolant problem is related...can we say head gasket? I hope not...but it looks like it might be.

[tedmales]

if it has a head gasket that is bad and its leaking water in the oil and you do not want to tear it down, there is this stuff called block seal and it repairs almost any leak. you have to drain the anti-freeze then put it in and let it run untill it stops. works great, but kind of a last ditch effort.

[Dillon]

Gonna do compression check this weekend and see whats up. Changing head gasket doesn't seem too bad, just time consuming, remove manifolds and heads....piece of cake lol. Might as well change water pump and timing belt...