SpeedingHatch

Yeah, so my car might be done for.

The story: About a week ago, I went for a quick drive. I hit the highway and as Im circling to merge on the on ramp, Im in 3rd gear and slowly get up to cruising speed. Im maintaining these high rpms and all of a sudden, my tachometer goes to 0, the battery light comes on, and the car is slowing down.

I put in the clutch, perplexed by this, and then try to have the car turn itself over by leaving it in gear.

This is where I think i fucked up
I let my foot off the clutch and the car didnt turn itself over and started to decelerate rather rapidly due to the gear, instead of neutral, so a few seconds later, I put the clutch back in, put in in neutral, and coast to the side.


Long story short, the 15A ECU fuse from under the hood blew, so the ECU wasnt getting power during this event.

Fastforward:

I tow the car home, replace the fuse, it starts, but Im hearing some severe clatter from the head. Its fine at idle, but if I hold revs to 3000-3500 rpm, it clanks, clatters, and sounds as if a nut is loose in the head, and misses and sounds like ****.

I do a compression test: and its a solid 178 across the board.


So I pull the head and send it to the machine shop and everything checks out okay. No loose bolts, no nothing.


So, in conclusion, do you think by me puting the car in gear while the ecu wasnt getting power, therefore not getting oil pressure, spun a rod bearing? Would a spun rod bearing mess with compression?

I have yet to pull the pan and inspect due to my busy schedule. But if you guys do think its a spun rod bearing, and it turns out to be true, I will be parting the car out.

So let me hear your .02 please



VID NOW AT THE BOTTOM


Modified by SpeedingHatch at 10:20 PM 7/10/2006

NJIN BUILDR

Not sure what your problem is,but oil pressure is not controlled by the ecu.If the engine is turning the pump's making pressure.

SpeedingHatch

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by NJIN BUILDR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Not sure what your problem is,but oil pressure is not controlled by the ecu.If the engine is turning the pump's making pressure.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I was unaware of this. Then again, Im an idiot.

Any more help out there?

Muckman

iTrader: (2)

Pull the oil pan, check for large amounts of metal debris indicating a spun bearing.

coneheadsracing

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Muckman &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Pull the oil pan, check for large amounts of metal debris indicating a spun bearing.</TD></TR></TABLE>

agreed. If you had stuck it into fifth, would have been better, but if you were still in third, ouch. Are you sure the noise isn't your tranny???

SpeedingHatch

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by coneheadsracing &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">agreed. If you had stuck it into fifth, would have been better, but if you were still in third, ouch. Are you sure the noise isn't your tranny???</TD></TR></TABLE>

I went to 4th, but by that time, i was around 45ish mph

I will pull the pan tomorrow

SpeedingHatch

Pan looks fine.

wtf am I hearing then

Muckman

iTrader: (2)

Idk. Put it all back together and you'll prob fix whatever was loose in the process. Probably a loose timing belt tension or possibly a rocker got loose inside the head. It looks like there is no damage to the bottom end and you say the head checks out. Go easy on the hondabond too

mattssi

If you were low on oil you may have a spun bearing. if you cannot hear it at idle then It may not be that bad yet. I have seen a friend that his only made noise at about 3500 rpms and he drove like that for weeks. Then when he did a motor swap, We pulled the pan and checked and the bearing was starting to squeeze out the sides or the rod and inbetween the rod and the crank. It was absolutely crazy that it didn't knock all the time. That was on a y7 block. Chances are there is a failing rod or main bearing. I would put my money on a rod bearing. I would get a closer look at it by getting down there with a good light.

yee SERIOUS

iTrader: (1)

clutch spring maybe?

Muckman

iTrader: (2)

I dont think its a bearing without ANY metal shavings in the bottom of the oil pan. Look at the pic, he was very thourough and cleaned it out well. He would have seen any shavings if they were present.

SpeedingHatch

Okay, Update:

I got the head back on and the car running again and it still clicks, though this time I have vids.

Its coming from the back of the motor and when it clicks, not only does it run funny, but I got shocked when my arm was resting on the distributor, so whatever it is, it has an electrical charge.

Link to vid (kind of long, but you hear the ticking well later in the vid):

http://video.google.com/videop...34381

WTF can this be?

NJIN BUILDR

Cracked insulation on a plug wire.Or maybe a cracked distributer cap.

SpeedingHatch

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by NJIN BUILDR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Cracked insulation on a plug wire.Or maybe a cracked distributer cap.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I switched distributors before I took the head off and it still clicked.

You can feel it click, not just a sound

SpeedingHatch

bump, anyone?

SpeedingHatch

I switched injectors as well, just to see if that did anything. It didnt.

But the sound is definetely coming from the Intake Manifold area and is only at a certain rpm, ~2500-3000.

It was visually inspected when the head was off, and I shook it around and no clanking.

I dont know what else to check


I even unhooked the alternator while the car wa running to see if that did anything, and it still clanked.

This is a physical knocking in the intake manifold area

alpha

Dont feel like reading through the whole thread

* Have you checked your retainers?
* Have you checked your rocker arms?
* Have you checked your valve lash?

Some suggestions. I have had similar noises with large cams, bad retainers, worn rocker arms and valve lash out of spec

IRONlung201

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by NJIN BUILDR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Cracked insulation on a plug wire.Or maybe a cracked distributer cap.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Most likely the plug wires arcing somewhere like was suggested, replace them with known good ones and see if it works. Thats what it sounds like in the vid anyway. And you would "feel" this because the motor missfires when that particular cylinder looses spark when it arcs somewhere on the wire instead of the plug. And you said you changed distributors so that eliminates arcing there. Give it a shot its simple and may just be it.

SpeedingHatch

Changed plug wires. Still does it

IRONlung201

How about idling the motor, and pulling one spark plug boot off at a time and listen for the noise. Its called a power balance test. If you can isolate it to just one cylinder then youd make finding it that much easier. Oh and you can watch an accurate tack and see how much RPM the idle falls when you pull each wire. If one cylinder doesnt make the idle drop as much as the others, youve found the one thats down on power. If this works youve isolated the problem to be anything that is applied to an individual cylinder like spark, fuel, internals, etc...

Good luck

SpeedingHatch

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by IRONlung201 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">How about idling the motor, and pulling one spark plug boot off at a time and listen for the noise. Its called a power balance test. If you can isolate it to just one cylinder then youd make finding it that much easier. Oh and you can watch an accurate tack and see how much RPM the idle falls when you pull each wire. If one cylinder doesnt make the idle drop as much as the others, youve found the one thats down on power. If this works youve isolated the problem to be anything that is applied to an individual cylinder like spark, fuel, internals, etc...

Good luck</TD></TR></TABLE>

Great minds must think alike, because I did that already and all drop the rpm the same.

IRONlung201

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SpeedingHatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Great minds must think alike, because I did that already and all drop the rpm the same.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Hmmm, im guessing you listened for the noise too when you did this? The sound in the video does sound like an electrical tick, but thats just from hearing a video. If I were you I'd take the windage tray off if you still have the pan off and inspect the crank/rod bearings as best you can.

But first maybe if its togethor and running try to isolate the sound as best you can, use a long screwdriver and hold it onto components and put your ear up to it and see if you can hear it better, or grab a mechanics stethiscope at a store, they should be cheap. Try listening to the valvetrain, or stuff near the timing cover, or the injectors etc... Its old school troubleshooting but it may work. Again good luck, its only a matter of time until you find it or it goes away and you really get worried

turboteg2nv

This is probably obvious, but are you throwing any ECU codes? You might've toasted a sensor on the IM. Also is it a Vtec head? Maybe the butterflies inside got messed up...?

SpeedingHatch

its not throwing codes

SpeedingHatch

just went out and messed with it and got pummeled by an electric shock when my elbows were on the intake manifold, possibly on the distributor bridging the two.

Its gotta be a short or something and I hopped in the car and revd it up and its exactly at 2k rpm everytime.