I noticed a noise a day ago, and it sounded like a hollow knocking noise, but it wasnt consistent ( like once every 3-5 seconds) and it doesnt get worse(louder) if it is rev'ed. I went to the shop (whom i trust) and he told me it was the balancer shafts and bearings or sounded like a spun bearing of some sort. Two days beforre i heard the noise i checked my oil and it was at a good level. Mind you im 450 miles before needing an oil change. Then when i heard the noise and checked the car it had under the bottom dot of oil. So i put oil in it. and the noise continued.
They think its the balncing shafts or bearings of some sort (already stated) He has not taken the oil pan off to check any bearings on the crank or check the connecting rods or main bearings, or to see if the seal on the balncing shafts blew and thats why oil wasnt there (which is my best guess)
My question is has anyone ran there car w/out oil for a day or so, heard a funny noise, came to find that they had blown the bearings on the balancing shaft or any bearings, and what other things did that lead to f*ck up? if you break the balancing shafts, does that severely lead to any other problems, (ie: like when your timing belt breaks, you normally bend valves)
Does anyone have a h22a bottom end for grabs complete?
Im just looking for info, reassurance, and heads up on what else is gonna be fucked up when they get in there! Any kind of suggestions, comments, or tehnical/mechanical expertise or, "that happened to me" stories would be appreciated! Also no damn comments on the fact that there was no oil in it and i drove it! obviously i understand what happens! And i know the leading factor for the oil missing is a balancing shaft seal blowing out!

(To all H-T'ers, i appreciate the spent time reading analizing and helping with my situation)

 

This is weird.. You have enough oil, thats fine.. Not really sure what to tell you.. Which motor do you have? at what RPM is it knocking?

 

your balance shafts have nothing to do with your nmotors reliablity per say, like...if you broke your balance shaft belt, it wouldnt hurt anything by not moving...Rod knock is bad, and will eventually seize...not pretty

 

if you don't see oil out side the block then it's not a seal. With the engine running pull one plug wire off then do the next one(be careful not to shock yourself). If the sound goes away then it will be a bearing. time for a build up

 

pulling your plug wires wont help...i dont understand that one....the crank will still move thus causing the knocking...peace

 

By pulling a plug lead off while the car is going will take load off that cylinder so nothing will push on it, but only the crank will move it and thus if it's a big end bearing, the noise may go away with no load on that cylinder.

 

the noise will still be there, your talking about listening for a bearing, if its spun there is a gap, which allows the actual rod to move around, and "slap" the crank ..even by taking the load off, the movement of the crank will cause the rod to move around, and make noise, pulling the plugs may lighten it a tad, but u can still hear it.peace

 

depending on each case, I can see where it might take the noise away, but that isn't a for sure thing.

A spun bearing generally makes a serious amount of racket, and isn't just at one RPM.

I've spun a bearing, and let me tell you something, I thought the motor was about to jump out of the engine bay and grab me by the neck and strangle me. You would know if you spun one. You'd just hear it and say "oh shhhhhhit... THAT'S what they were talking about." It's kinda like when you meet the woman you were meant to marry. You always *think* you've met her. But one day when you DO meet her, it's like *click* BINGO.

If the mechanic dropped the oil pan, he should've been able to tell if it was a bearing or not. If you drove that sucker around for a day or two with a bearing knocking, then there is some visible damage down there.

Double check that it's not coming from the top of the motor, such as valve noise, rocker arms or lifters ticking.

 

oh and a question about the oil... did you check the level *right after* hearing the noise? And is that also when you filled it up? If so, your oil was fine, you didn't give it a chance to settle back into the pan. The oil was all over the parts in your engine, and by adding oil you most likely over-filled it... hopefully you had it changed really soon afterwards if that's the case! (or drained some)

 

okay my lude motor is knocking bad, and the mechanic says the crankshaft is no longer any good...

What to do? get a longblock or can this motor be rebuilt?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by likwid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
My question is has anyone ran there car w/out oil for a day or so, heard a funny noise, came to find that they had blown the bearings on the balancing shaft or any bearings, and what other things did that lead to f*ck up?
</TD></TR></TABLE>


Running low oil in the engine can have serious consequences as you know. If your oil level is low to start with, and (lets say) you make a hard left turn, this will cause what oil you have in the pan to move away from the oil pick-up. All it takes is a second or two of no oil (oil starvation) to cause rod or main bearing damage.
This can lead to the knocking sound you may have.
My suggestion is to NOT drive the car until you do an oil change. Get 2 CLEAN dran pans. Drain the oil from the engine into one. Let it all trickle out. Then carefully dump the oil into the other pan. Look for any signs of metalic (sparkle) in the oil. This can look like a pearl paint job. When you get to the bottom of the pan you are draining, look for any type of flakes or debris. Hopefully, you won't see any of the above. If you do however, then chances are high that there has been bearing damage. If bearing damage has occured, you don't want to keep driving the car and waste the crank shaft.

 

You will hardly notice any knocking w/ no load on the cylinder. Sure the crank is still moving but the gap will always be on the other side of the contact point and since it's rounded, there will never be a loss in contact w/o an external force to move it (like the spark igniting the fuel pushing the rod/piston down).

It's kind of hard to describe but one you get the understanding of it, it'll make sense.

Take for instance a hoola hoop and twirl it around your arm. Sure your arm isn't as big as the hoop but there will always be contact as long as the arm is the only force moving on the hoola hoop (your arm is the crank and the hoop is the rod's big end). Sure if you stop moving your arm the hoop will fall because gravity acts on it but the rod and piston won't move via gravity because of the friction between the ring and the cylinder wall.

Now, I'm not totally sold on it being a rod bearing if it only knocks now and then. Unless your spark plug isn't firing right, it should knockconsistently all the time.

 

its his balancing shafts! In my opinion the first thing to go in an H22a that gets to really low oil! You can hear if the noise is coming from the bottom or top of the block, by taking a LONG Flat head screwdeive and placing the flathead end towards the area behind the headers and placing your ear on the handle(like a stethescope) you can hear the crank assembely and balncing shafts and **** rotating! If there isnt a non-consistent or consistent non-average noise, then something probally not broken in the block! you can hear the same way for the head ie:knocking and such!
hope it helps

 

sorry to bring this thread back from the dead, but i need to thank you. this just gave me some hope.

my two friends did my motor swap for me while i was at work one night. the night before i had been aligning the balance shafts.

my friends forgot to put the mainainance plug back in and it was spewing oil from the balance shaft area.

the car ran pretty low on oil. but i think i caught it just in time.

the other night i noticed a clanging knocking sound in the front of the motor at the middle right (if header facing you) and upon further inspection, found teeth missing from the balance shaft belt. so the noise is coming from the balance shaft area. i will try that screwdriver trick.

so hopefully, when i remove the belt, the noise will stop. i hope thats all it is. its not like valves or rods hitting things. i've experienced that when i seized a subaru not too long ago.

its noticeable at idle, and sounds more like bearings than knocking ya know?

thanks i h-t!

 

Please figure it out.... I have the exact same noise. We already tried the screw driver trick and believe it's from the distrbutor area, but then again I'm not sure.

 

I had a slight knocking with my Integra, now I have a blown up B18 because it **** a bearing. Get that checked out ASAP. It would have only been a $20 fix if I caught it in time, but now I'm looking at several hundred (and I got lucky, it didn't mess up the cylinder wall).

 

so basically if i snip the belt, and it still knocks, i should worry? and i should do what exactly. how do you find the problem exactly?