Thankfully 'm not part of the spun bearing club :)

[DrGonzo]

So Sunday I took the stealth out for a nice country road drive. Started up the car and got some lifter tick... Though it was a little weird as the car never had lifter tick before. Took it on the road figuring it would go away. All gauges where right on and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. After an hour and a half I get back into town and the ticking is still there, little louder now. I decided to head home. Right when I pulled into my community I was getting a really loud knocking noise like lifter tick from HELL......

I get home and pop the hood. I can't really tell if it is upper or lower as the car sits so low. I'm thinking the worse that I spun a bearing. Didn't make sense as I didn't push the car and the oil pressure was great the whole drive. Even with the knocking it was still sitting at about 20-25 psi at idle.

I drain the oil and everything looks good. No metal in the oil and no copper. Pulled the oil filter and ran it though some coffee filters "Two hours later" I check them and I see some really fine copper dust partials. So small I barely couple even notice them... Crap I need to drop the pan.

I get home today and proceed with dropping the pan. Finally get it off and nothing in the pan at all. Pulled the caps and all of the bearing are fine No copper showing on any of them and they are all still tightly seated.





So I put the caps back on and notice that the oil drops forming on the rod studs almost looked like that copper silicone... WTH.. Lots of copper dust partials suspended in the oil.

So if the bearings are good there where could the copper be coming from??? I did rebuild the turbos so maybe from the turbo bearings??

So I am thinking now the knocking is coming from top side "loose rocker, collapsed lifter. etc" Also going to check the timing and make sure nothing slipped.

So what's everyone's thoughts?

[TurboSinceBirth]

It almost sounds like a collapsed lifter. It wouldn't hurt to check them/replace them with 99 lifters while you're in there. If a rocker got off track you'd know because it would mark up your camshaft and maybe even cause the motor to jump timing.

[DrGonzo]

Yeah, That is what I am thinking now. Once I get the bottom end back together I am going to pull the top apart and figure out the problem. Be a good time to swap in some 99 lifters while I'm at it. Good thing with pulling the pan is I can finally fix those pesky small oil pan and turbo return line leaks that have been driving me nuts lately...


Anyone know if it is possible to swap out the lifters without pulling the cams/t-belt?? I thought I remember hearing that someone was able to do it but I may be wrong.

[Keyan]

You can remove lifters with a nice long pry bar and some blood and sweat

[Droid X via Tapatalk]

[Rocket]

I did mine with 2 screwdrivers and a rag to keep them from scratching things up. It works well

[Chris@Rvengeperformance]

the pry bar method works fine, but they make a tool if you have time to go that route:

MITSUBISHI / CHRYSLER DOHC VALVE LIFTER REMOVAL TOOL | eBay

[DrGonzo]

OK so got the bottom half all back together and I pulled the valve cover to check the rockers/lifters. Everything look good. Al of the rockers are in place and everything is nice and tight.

So if I do have a collapsed lifter what are the tell tale signs?

I pried down on all of them and none of them moved. So I'm assuming they are all good and none have collapsed, but I'm not sure. When I manually turn the crank I get to a point where I hear what seems to be a spring pop!!

I checked the timing and all is spot on so I know it didn't jump. Any ideas as to what else I should check???

[J. Fast]

Did you crank the engine a full cycle and bring it back to #1 cyl TDC and follow the arrow test instructions? You should be testing 12 at #1 cyl TDC and the remaing 12 after full 360? Any chance you can put a stethi on it and listen while you rotate the crank to isolate the noise?

[DrGonzo]

Well got the lifters swapped out yesterday. When finishing off the rear bank and hand cranking the engine I kept hearing a popping/knocking noise. So I watched the rear bank and found that the cam gear bolt was loose on the rear intake cam. That is what was causing all of the damn knocking I was hearing. So torqued it down to 65ft lbs and got the engine back together today. Spent 2 hours trying to get it to start as the battery is toast! Finally got it started and it's running good.

For some reason my AEM WB is stuck on 14.8 AFR "most likely the O2 is fried" Luckily it's still under warranty. My FP Gauge sensor is also fried which is also under warranty.

So as the trend goes get one thing fixed and three other things are now broken.... WTF!!

[Primus101]

Hey Gonzo- I realize it's a bit of work to retime, but did you check out the cam dowl? Those little F's are pretty fragile & the meat in the dowl area in the cam is pretty thin too. I would check it running for wobble on that gear. not only do those pins bend easy, but when they do, it will leave a 'raised eyebrow' on the mating surfaces (around the pin slot) of the rear of the cam gear & even the cam.
Hell, I just pulled my cams gears (after only 400 miles), using the correct method with the cam hex, & as I broke the 65# loose, the gear got pulled with that bigass bolt flange contact & ever so slightly tweaked the pins and the gears
I used a miniscule amount of assembly lube under the heads this time & the next time they come off, I'm using a friggin' impact gun (highly recommended for the quicker action in torque release.)
You've come way too far for defeat, you're winning


Well that's how I kid myself about it-