I recently started hearing a knocking sound only when I first started my car, and after about two days It got extremely loud and lost some power. It did have oil, is this what they call throwing a rod? I'm not that mechanically intelligent but I can do regular maintenance on a car. I had it towed from work, what should be the first thing to look for? Any consideration toward this will be greatly appreciated.

 

when you throw a rod, you will see it coming out of the block somewhere, which is not good, as far as the knocking noise, bring it to a mechanic to listen to the sound, so you can be sure

 

Why did you have it towed? Was it still running? Was the knocking that bad?

I was going to say you might just need a valve adjustment, but it wouldn't be EXTREAMLY loud like you said.

 

I had it towed because it was that loud. I looked under the valve cover but didn't see anything unusual, (someone I talked to said it might be a stuck lifter). Still not sure what it is, it seems to not be as loud after it warms up a bit.

 

I had a 91 civic b15 SOHC and some how on one side of the camshaft the brace or whatever that holds the camshaft down came loose.

looks like a U with two bolts seems one of them backed out. they retourqued it and never had onother problem. thought that was it to be honest

 

You probably didn't throw a rod (you'd know if you did), but may have lost a bearing like you mentioned the possibilty of. If it's rod knock, it's noticeably loud and seriously hurts performance or makes it so your car won't drive at all. The reason being your rod is not getting pushed up the cylinder as well, because it's just bouncing around on your crank, so you're not getting proper compression. You can check your compression, see if any of the cylinders are way low (though low compression can be a sign of other things).

 

first off, when you throw a rod, it doesnt always come through the block, those are the worst cases of thrown rods, involving rpm way beyond the normal range.....

sounds like you definately have something stuck in the head, or something loose down low.....

under the valve cover, make sure you check that all the valves are still in their correct spots, you could have sucked one, or stuck one. sucked would be if it came out of its "keepers" (they hold the valve in position with the retainer) and fell into the cylinder, then the knock would be the piston hitting the dangling valve, but your engine wouldnt run like this, it would knock for just a second and then it would get stuck with the piston and valve in contact wedged somewhere in the cylinder....if you stuck a valve its not coming all the way back up even after the cam releases the rocker, this would be an issue with a bad spring, retainer, or rocker....but that would be easy to visually recognize....thats all for the head.....

if the head looks ok then get under the car and take the oil pan off.....get your flashlight and take a close look at all the main rod caps and the piston pins on all 4 rods...if any appear loose or jiggle to the touch....theres your problem....

get back to us with what you find....and good luck

 

Well I got the oil pan and windage tray off so that I could look at the rods. First there was some metal "flake" in the oil so that wasn't a good sign then I noticed one of the connecting rods had some back and forth play in it. So I am going to say that the bearing is shot. Thanks for the info guys, it did help. Now I'm just not sure wether to pay someone or try and do it myself over several weekends. I have heard that it's just as easy to do a 2.2 vtec swap, is that true? Also if anyone know of any good honda guys here in Austin, Tx. that would help too. Otherwise I will be trying this for the first time and I assume it's a complicated thing to do. Let me know any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

i would not try to fix it yourself just to save some money, unless you know how to play and look at bearings