Rah Rah

Coming home today the car was making a rattling/clunking type noise. I pulled over and let the car idle--no noise. I revved the motor and the noise was loud and noticeable the higher the rpms. At idle the noise dissapears. The oil light started flickering--I was like, "WTF?" According to my oil pressure gauge, I still had 10 psi (min. 10 psi according to my Helms for a 92 LS). I turned the car off and let it sit for a few hours. I came back, checked the oil level and it was low one quart. I then added oil fired her up and at startup it made a nasty loud rapping, thudding noise for a second then it was fine. No oil light, so I drove her around the block a few times. The noise got louder as the rpms rose. At idle she was fine and my oil pressure is fine. I'm almost absolutely positive it's not a valve tap. I've heard many cars with valve taps and I've adjusted enough valves to know what it sounds like. This sounds much uglier--deeper pitched. Could it be the beginnings of spun rod bearing? Opinions?

lazerus

bearings usually sound like a screech/sqeak type deal, usually i'ts very noticable at lower RPMS.

The FIRST thing i would do, is to remove the oil filter, and cut it open and examine the filter, that will tell you just what, if anything, has passed through the oil pump.

If it spun a bearing, chances are many of the bits are covering the sump pickup and lowering the oil pressure.

The second thing to do really, is to take the pan off and valve cover, and scope things out!

From those two things you should be able to diagnose it.

bearing shavings will almost look like tin foil made from tin/copper, you'll know right away...