I recently acquired a b16 eg hatch, thats boosted on ssautopoo stuff. And I'm getting ready to rip apart this motor because of a few issues. The most baffling however, is this ticking/knocking noise.

Now I've had a spun bearing before, and personally, this doesn't sound quite like one. Also, the mere fact that its intermittent and DOESN'T increase with revving, kind of has me stumped. Lately though, (and I'm not driving it) it seems to be becoming more consistent. Yesterday I was just blip'ing the throttle to try and get it to make the noise again, and I think something from the bottom end made contact with the top end. The car stumbled hard and picked back up, still sounded the same.

Things I suspect at this point; 1. Loose rod bearing clearance/spun rod bearing (still not ruling that out) 2. bad LMA? I've heard they produce a similar sound 3. Something to do with the flywheel (long shot here), maybe the bolts backed out or something. Could've been my imagination but the clutch was feeling weak when I parked it

Anything else to check? I posted in here for a couple reasons. There are many very knowledgeable engine builders in this forum, that have probably ran into this problem before. And 2ndly, it IS boosted, and running very strong at 10psi.

Thanks for all the help guys, fortunately I have to drop the pan to replace the oil gasket, as well as tear off the head to replace the headgasket (thanks to a p.o.s Cometic)

EDIT: oh yeah a quick rundown of the setup

b16a SIR I swap
Eagle rods, 9:1 Wiseco Pistons
SSautopoo mani
Garrett T3 .50/.48 (yes this turbo sucks)
Ebay 2.5 IC piping, Ebay FMIC
custom 2.5" dp/exhaust
DSM 450's
Chipped p28 Tuned on crome, by me.

And yes, if you load up the car, the noise goes inaudible.

 

Could possibly be that a piston might be tapping the head or that sort of thing.

Honestly, the only way you're going to find out is if you pull the head/oil pan and check all of your bearings and walls and such.

 

Yeah, I pretty much figured that. Just wondering if anyone has encountered something as bizarre as this. Don't worry I have every intention of tearing it down to figure it out. Just sitting here bored at work, and thought I'd post it up.

Also, I dont know if I mentioned it. But the motor has done this from mile 1, just in last few months, it has gotten worse. It used to be just a little bit at first start and then it was done.


Modified by Unsivil_audio at 4:46 PM 7/31/2007

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Unsivil_audio &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Yeah, I pretty much figured that. Just wondering if anyone has encountered something as bizarre as this. Don't worry I have every intention of tearing it down to figure it out. Just sitting here bored at work, and thought I'd post it up.

Also, I dont know if I mentioned it. But the motor has done this from mile 1, just in last few months, it has gotten worse. It used to be just a little bit at first start and then it was done.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Haha it's cool. I do the same thing, and every time I do I figure the problem out about 5 minutes later, lol.

 

my motor makes a little like knocking noise every once and then it goes away but it only does it at idle. but it goes away. my motor is a stock LS BTW

 

if it's a bad LMA it will stop ticking as soon as you get on the high lift lobes.

All of your ideas will change with RPM though, maybe some solenoid or the iacv is going wacky on you.

 

Just an update. I pulled the oil pan yesterday. This motor is DONE! Found "sand dunes" of metal shavings in the bottom of the pan, as well as two whole pieces of oil squirter's, I have no idea how this happened.

Funny thing is, I have an oil pressure gauge which I was told when I bought the car was broken. It is tapped off the head. This would explain why theres no oil pressure up there huh? I mean if there are broken oil squirter's just bleeding off pressure to the head.

Honestly I'm really lucky I didn't seize this motor. Thankfully a friend of mine is gonna help me out;by supplying a GSR block and crank as well as some Eagle rods. Will post up pics here soon, of both carnage and rebuilding. This is turning into a build thread.