It's actually a local friend of mine's prelude that we suddenly had some trouble with.. how is this R related you might ask? well, he's a good friend of mine so the trailer for the R brought it to my house from the track, he street drove my R while I drove the truck, and it's now parked in the R's spot.. and I'm going to be helping fix it and know quite a few good people read here more than the lude forum..

here's a link to the thread:
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1011794


here's the info on what happened(borrowed from his post):

"Today while at the track, I was coming into the pits on a cool down lap and the engine started making this LOUD tapping noise. I took it out of gear and the tapping frequency reduced but the engine stalled right away. I tried to fire it back up but couldn't get it back running.

After using a friend's battery, we got it running but the excessive tapping was still there. After getting into Mark (aka mstewar's) garage, we fired it back up to try to locate the knocking sound. It appears to be coming from the front side of the engine by the upper timing belt cover, above the header. We did a compression check and all the cylinders appear to be fine. We took a look under the valve cover and didn't see anything obvious. The cam gears were TDC and the t-belt looks fine. Anybody have an ideas what it could possibly be?

Here are the two videos from tonight with the knocking coming from the head...

http://www.chillybanana.com/Vi...I.AVI

http://www.chillybanana.com/Vi...I.AVI

Any input would be greatly appreciated."

Thanks!!!!

 

Sorry to say but he prob did the same thing i did at the track on fri...i missed 4th and hit 2nd(oops) and when i pulled off i had a loud tap and engine immediately stalled, tried to get tow trucks but they wanted 400 bucks so i drove it home and pulled the head off and luckily only had bents valves...thats prob what he did cause it sounds exactly like what i went through.

 

Just listened to the videos and that is exactly what my car sounded like...im just wondering but did his exhaust sound like a subaru cause mine did cause i bent some exhaust valves?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ITR.#1446 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Just listened to the videos and that is exactly what my car sounded like...im just wondering but did his exhaust sound like a subaru cause mine did cause i bent some exhaust valves?</TD></TR></TABLE>

that was what was so weird.. everything else seemed normal, except for the tapping noise.. still think it's bent valves? wouldn't the compression test have come out much lower if the valves were bent?

 

I'm the guy with the Prelude...

Nope, didn't misshift at all. I have video of the session and when it happened afterwards. I was coming off the track, taking a cool down lap and as I was pulling into the pits, BAM! The noise started happening. Yeah, I don't think it's a bent valve... it would show on the compression check.

Keith

 

I can't hear the vid now... but does the noise get louder and faster as you accelerate??? I had a increasingly faster and louder noise comming from car just before I spun a rod bearing..

 

Is that something common to the Preludes? Reason I ask, the 330 Bimmers come in after autocross runs making all kinds of valvetrain clatter (lifters I believe). Perfectly normal, happens to all of them, but sounds kind of frightening to those of us who aren't used to our engines making clattering noises.

Wondering if it's something that happens to the Ludes too...

 

listen to the vid.. it's a seriously scary noise.. there is definitely something wrong/broken.. and i don't think it's anything prelude specific.. none of the prelude guys has been able to go "AHA! I know what it is" either..

josh, the noise corresponds with RPM, so with more throttle it gets faster.. not sure about louder though.. it's pretty loud even at idle..

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mstewar &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">listen to the vid.. it's a seriously scary noise.. there is definitely something wrong/broken.. and i don't think it's anything prelude specific.. none of the prelude guys has been able to go "AHA! I know what it is" either..

josh, the noise corresponds with RPM, so with more throttle it gets faster.. not sure about louder though.. it's pretty loud even at idle..</TD></TR></TABLE>

that sounds like the problem I had.... check around and I am curious to hear what others think.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by misfit &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

that sounds like the problem I had.... check around and I am curious to hear what others think. </TD></TR></TABLE>

weird that it would be a rod bearing though, since the noise seems to be coming from the head, no?

 

I thought that was where my noises were comming from till I lifted it up and listened... Its worth a shot...

has he ever burned oil or had been low on oil??

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by misfit &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I thought that was where my noises were comming from till I lifted it up and listened... Its worth a shot...

has he ever burned oil or had been low on oil??</TD></TR></TABLE>

burned, yes.. quite a bit in fact from what i gather.. but he's pretty good about checking it often to keep it full..

sounds like something to check though.. since i have that fancy lift, we can put it in the air and start it.. or jack it up and lay underneath..

 

how about a timing belt tensioner? How tight does the belt feel?

 

Belt is still tight, no slack. Tensioner was changed last year with the t-belt, b-belt, and waterpump.

Mark, if Jay checked the locking nut (which he said he did), then I'm starting to think it could be a spun bearing.

Keith

 

Whatever you do - stop running the motor!

Pull off the oil pan and check the crankshaft bearings.

Sounds like a spun bearing to me.

 

yeah don't turn the motor at all really.....if you run it anymore you could totally ruin the block. sounds like a rod bearing or extremely bad valve train problems

 

I would pull off the oil pan and see whats up down there. If that gets you nowhere, pull the head.

 

As promised, the video of when it happened...

http://www.chillybanana.com/Videos/bad_news.wmv

 

rod bearing almost for sure or you dropped a valve but more like rod bearing...did the oil light come on?

drain the oil and look for gold/bronze flakes in it

 

Nope, no check engine or oil lights... the odd thing was my brake light did come on...

 

Pull the valve cover off and check to see if all your 10mm nuts you would use to do a valve adjustment are still their. Thats EXACTLY what happened to my R. I pulled the valve cover off to check and i saw that one 10mm nut from the intake side of cylinder 1. somehow loosened up and flewoff. Lucky it went down into the oil pan and didn't cause any damage.



Modified by SpdFrk at 7:05 AM 10/6/2004

 

Update:

Tonight Mark and I proceeded to check the rocker arms, the valve lashes, and locking nuts. All were fine with no signs of an damage or slack. The rocker arms had tension as we went through the entire cycle. We decide to go to the drain the oil and drop the oil pan. Note, I changed the oil the day before track day which would have been this past Saturday.

First, I found this on my Spoon magnetic drain bolt...


After removing the oil pan, we found large metal shavings throughout the oil pan...




On the baffle plate (above the pan, below the crank), we found a pile of metal shavings between cylinder 1 and 2.



Majority of shavings were magnetic... some were not (must be aluminium).

We inspected the block from underneath and didn't see anything obvious... the cylinder walls, crank, rods and piston (underneath anyhow) looked fine... We checked the head again and still didn't find any trace of where the metal shavings are coming from. We did notice there was a very slight play in the rear balancer shaft... I don't think there are any bearings in the rear balancer shaft but we are thinking about cutting the balancer belt to see if the noise persist. If that doesn't solve it, then I'm going to just get a new/used motor and while we are waiting, to disassemble this motor to try to find the cause of the problem...

Any more ideas guys?

Keith

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Keith &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">If that doesn't solve it, then I'm going to just get a new/used motor and while we are waiting, to disassemble this motor to try to find the cause of the problem...

Keith</TD></TR></TABLE>

*cough* 2.4L H22 *cough*

Somebody say something??

 

Pull apart the bottom more...the answer should jump out at you. This is oddly similar to when mine was pulled apart and found some stuff in the oil pickup. It was pieces of a bearing for me. Good luck!

If needed, you might be able to just pick up a used shortblock for cheap, as long as the head is not damaged.

 

damn, those pictures arent exactly good.. suttin came off... hopefully it's nothing too bad or too hard to replace.