I need a Diagnosis...[shakes, stalls, sputters]

[AsILayDying]

Went to the tracks yesterday... ran a 15.136... drove the highway home and pushed my car the last few hundred feet home after it shook and stalled... clicking noise coming from the intake cam/valve region, hopefully not a rod. Car sputters when starting and engine shakes back and forth alot with a steady clicking every revolution. I don't want to run my car more than I have to cause I'm afraid something bad might happen, so I'm not driving it until I figure out what it is and fix it. I feel like an idiot, but i didn't catch this... a vaccuum hose going from a sensor to the fuel rail was unhooked for my third run ... I think this is quite possibly what caused the problem. It's the only explanation. I need advice... are these symptoms of a bent valve? or is the timing off? or did I bend a rod? I have no idea and I've been searching all day with hardly any luck...

 

[AsILayDying]

Okay, I'd just like to apologize for wasting everyone's time. My friend and I just changed the oil and put a new oil filter on, which by the way my car was running on about 3 qts. of black oil, hence the bad performance. My car started up fine like normal, and we noticed that underneath the valve cover, 3 rivets came out of the metal sheet that kind of covers the cams and well it is like dangling and we're positive that it is just slapping the cams and part of the head. This is the sound, because I started it up and my friend put his hand to the valve cover, directly over were the dangling metal sheet is and he could feel it knocking against the top. So I think it's safe to say, problem solved, and now I am happy again cause I can just get a new valve cover. Thanks for all the help guys.

 

[andymoraitis]

If it's nothing more than an oil baffle coming loose, it's still worth while to make sure nothing got beaten up in there. Anyway, I'm glad it was something simple and that you managed to find it.

 

[95TSIAWD]

Been along time since I been here so, you guys will have to forgive me. I am the previous ower of this car. When this young man bought the car. He did not even want to test drive it. I had him test drive it and we had the hood up and examined the fluids. i let him know that he as the new owner should change all the fluids to whatever he wanted, and then he would know that they were all done right. That was two and ahalf months ago. Since then he's has added a boost controller for increasing the boost on the car, and not done anything to the stock fuel system, or stock exhaust. So that being said I resent him telling everyone that I lied to him. When the truth of the matter is doesn't really know what he's doing with the car. He took it to the track for crying out loud without examining his fluids?

 

[AsILayDying]

I hate to bring this back up, but idk what to do. I waited for ever, got a nice trg coated valve cover, and it didn't fixing the clicking noise... The oil baffle on the old cover was practically dangling and a corner of one of the divider pieces that sits on the cam, was bent in a little. I assumed that this was the problem, but it still clicks, and i don't know if this matters, but when I turned it over, and it was running fine and clicking, the belt was whining really loud for a good 10-15 seconds straight, so I just turned it off. Could it be a pulley or belt problem? Can your car run smooth with a bent valve? Is it possible the timing jumped? I can't seem to figure out the problem, but I really don't wanna take it to a mechanic, since i don't really know any good ones in my area, because i'll just end up having to bend over and pay them millions of dollars for something that could be a simple fix. Please give me any helpful information or suggestions if you can. Oh yea, I changed the oil and there were no shavings, so I know it's not a bottom end issue.