The Other Woman has an engine knock from ****.

[Off Road SHO]

Dammit! I finally get her started and she has developed a bad engine knock. Curses!

I doubted my expertise on what was my first valve adjustment, so I pulled the intake and covers off of her and the as-left clearances are all within the specified range. So that's not it.

Then I had doubts about my rod and main bearing job I did on her so I pulled the pan, windage tray and girdle off of her. I've plasti-gaged 4 of the 6 rod bearings so far and all of them are at .003 which is at the large end of the range but still within the specs.

I had some bad gas and some two stroke mix also in the tank. I'm wondering if that would cause the knocking sound. It knocks from idle on up the rpm range.

Maybe my timing is way out and what I'm hearing is real bad advanced timing knock.

Anybody have any ideas?

Thanks

Tom

 

[AutoSHO]

I may be wrong, but I am almost positive the tolerance for the Rod Bearings is .0009-.0022" in which case, you've got some trouble.

Do you have an oil pressure gauge on it, or have access to one? Does it knock only when its hot, or does it do it cold too? Does it regardless of throttle position?

<small>[ November 15, 2003, 08:32 PM: Message edited by: AutoSHO ]</small>

 

[Off Road SHO]

You're right, those are the design tolerances but the excessive wear limit is .003.

It has great oil pressure both cold and hot. It knocks at all rpms, idle on up at all throttle positions.

Tom

 

[Shoaz]

Off Road SHO:
You're right, those are the design tolerances but the excessive wear limit is .003.

It has great oil pressure both cold and hot. It knocks at all rpms, idle on up at all throttle positions.

Tom

Tom, did you try Todd's oil-pressure shim trick yet?

Another thing to think about might be cylinder clearances. You might pull the plugs on the side with the knock and see if there is any evidence of contact. I'd hope that this would be unlikely, but given other thoughts aren't panning out... shrug

 

[3.8Lwagon]

what sound does the engin make when there is some water in with the gas?

i know lawn equipment hard runs and stuges alot with any type of water in the tank. (stupied brother)

 

[Speedy_91_SHO]

I don't know how much this will help, but this happened after SHOracer14 and i replaced his fuel pump. We had to put gas in the tank and used some that was at his house. It turned out that the gas was actually mixed with oil headbang . It smoked and sputtered and what not. He went and got some more gas to dilut the oil and it was fine. I was inspecting under the hood and heard a loud knock. I remembered someone saying on here that the injectors could make a loud knock if clogged. We ran some injector cleaner through the system and she ran perfect, no more knock. I don't know if the clogging was from dirt in the gas tank or from the oil, but either way one or more of the injectors was clogged. It almost seems too easy. shrug

 

[shobikes]

Do you have a mechanic's stethoscope? I would also check the crank damper area - I'm sure you torqued it to spec if you've redone entire engine, but just checking - it's not the dreaded "crank cancer" noise??

Bad Knock Sensor leading to incorrect timing?

Do you have a way to check codes in The Other Woman?

 

[Off Road SHO]

Shoaz

Tom [/qb]

Tom, did you try Todd's oil-pressure shim trick yet?

Another thing to think about might be cylinder clearances. You might pull the plugs on the side with the knock and see if there is any evidence of contact. I'd hope that this would be unlikely, but given other thoughts aren't panning out... shrug [/QB][/QUOTE]

Eric,

No, I haven't done Todd's oil bypass yet. I'll try the plug thing this morning.

I've checked the intake ports down through the heads and can't see any evidence of any stray nut or bolt ever being down there. Lots of carbon build-up from when the crankcase breathed through the TB for 99,000 miles. Cleaned it all out.
Thanks
Tom

<small>[ November 16, 2003, 10:51 AM: Message edited by: Off Road SHO ]</small>

 

[Off Road SHO]

Speedy_91_SHO:
I don't know how much this will help, but this happened after SHOracer14 and i replaced his fuel pump. We had to put gas in the tank and used some that was at his house. It turned out that the gas was actually mixed with oil headbang . It smoked and sputtered and what not. He went and got some more gas to dilut the oil and it was fine. I was inspecting under the hood and heard a loud knock. I remembered someone saying on here that the injectors could make a loud knock if clogged. We ran some injector cleaner through the system and she ran perfect, no more knock. I don't know if the clogging was from dirt in the gas tank or from the oil, but either way one or more of the injectors was clogged. It almost seems too easy. shrug

I drained out all the old gas and went and got some new 92 octane for when I button everything back together. I'll run two or three quarts through the fuel rails before I try and start it again.

I also checked the torque on the crank dampener bolt. I chained the dampener to the side rail and at 200 pounds the bolt didn't budge so I think I have no problem there. Thanks

Tom

 

[Off Road SHO]

shobikes:
Do you have a mechanic's stethoscope? I would also check the crank damper area - I'm sure you torqued it to spec if you've redone entire engine, but just checking - it's not the dreaded "crank cancer" noise??

Bad Knock Sensor leading to incorrect timing?

Do you have a way to check codes in The Other Woman?

Yes, I checked with the stethescope and can't pinpoint the area definitively.

She has a new knock sensor. I have the check connector but it is not outputting any codes.

I did accidently drain the battery twice by leaving the ignition on. I wonder if I screwed up the computer with that senior moment?

thanks

Tom

<small>[ November 16, 2003, 11:03 AM: Message edited by: Off Road SHO ]</small>

 

[Off Road SHO]

Well... Still knocking. I re-checked all rod clearances; all at .003 or less.

Checked for abnormal movement of number four rod just in case it was a broken wrist pin; couldn't move it at all.

Found the main intake grommet loose, tightened that up.

Checked all the spark plugs again; they're all gapped correctly, but were slightly oily from the two stroke mix I accidently used. Cleaned and replaced.

Checked dampener bolt again; it's tight.

Ran two quarts of fuel through the rail to clean out any old fuel. Starts up a lot better now with the fresh gas.

Sucked some distilled water in through the throttle body and made some real neat wet spots behind her.

Checked the timing and it's right on mechanically. I'll check it electronically tomorrow.

But I'm still getting that knock at all rpms from what sounds like #4 cylinder with the stethescope.

I guess sometimes those 100,000 mile motors from junk yards are bad.

Curses.


Tom

<small>[ November 16, 2003, 09:55 PM: Message edited by: Off Road SHO ]</small>

 

[Bizzy]

Tom, while I really have no mechanical knowledge to share, I thought that maybe a recent story of my own may help to narrow things down.

Recently I had a knocking sound and it was bad enough to scare the bajeebus out of me. It sounded at first as if it was coming from the water pump or crank. I got a mechanics stethoscope and when I listened to the noise with them it sounded more like it was coming from the alternator tensioner pulley. After double checking all the bolts and pulleys the millionth time I found that 3 of the 4 bolts that hold the water pump pulley on were backing out. I tightened them up and the noise was all gone.

The only conclusion that Fred and I can come up with is the anodize look paint is some how acting like a anti-seize of sorts so one day soon I will be using some blue loctite on the bolts to make sure it doesn't happen again.

The moral of the story is that even though it may seem like the noise is coming from one area, it really may not be, but reverberating from another area. Check and double check that all your nuts and bolts are tight. I'll keep my fingers crossed that maybe my dumb story might actually help.

 

[Off Road SHO]

Thanks Bizzy, I'll try that tomorrow.

Tom

 

[nickedsho]

This happened to me but it was the rod bearing that were shot. wish I could help. Oil pressure ok?

 

[Off Road SHO]

Rod bearings are brand new and were re-checked for oil clearance with plastigage yesterday; .003 or less on all. Oil pressure is about 10-12 at idle and about 45-50 at higher rpms.

Thanks

Tom

 

[JaySHOguy]

Could it possibly be a bad waterpump?

In the past(on other cars) I have had waterpump bearings go bad, causing some bad knocking.

As Bizzy suggested, check all of the tensioners, etc. Maybe run it for a few minutes with NO accessory belts?

 

[nickedsho]

Just remembered something that a former Ford ASSET teacher of the local tech school told me about the SHO engine. He suggested this was might have been the cause of my knock. It wasn't for me, but he said he knows of this happening in the past. If you took the valve shims out with a magnet you can magnitize the shim to the point it will lift off the bucket onto the camshaft. This is why the Ford adjustment kit uses a pick. I don't see how this could easily happen, but it might be worthwile to remove th valve covers and take a look. He said it had been a problem with the SHO in the past. -nick

 

[nickedsho]

Just remembered something that a former Ford ASSET teacher of the local tech school told me about the SHO engine. He suggested this was might have been the cause of my knock. It wasn't for me, but he said he knows of this happening in the past. If you took the valve shims out with a magnet you can magnitize the shim to the point it will lift off the bucket onto the camshaft. This is why the Ford adjustment kit uses a pick. I don't see how this could easily happen, but it might be worthwile to remove th valve covers and take a look. He said it had been a problem with the SHO in the past. -nick

 

[midospike]

I wish you luck. I did mine last week also and same thing happen to me. Not sure if I am going to take it apart and check it again or just get an build engine.( i found rebuilds from $200 to $1000) Or sell the car and the vortex? Do you know how hard it is to pull the sho engine out?

 

[SHOPWR]

people have told me that its a challange to pull the motor. but i havent pulled a SHO motor, so i personally dont know.

<small>[ November 18, 2003, 03:34 AM: Message edited by: SHOPWR ]</small>