Is my motor toast?? (Video included)

[uberswede]

While heading out of town for the race track on Friday night, I was cruising down the highway at around 3000-3500 rpm, when the motor suddenly knocked pretty hard. I looked at my buddy, and it immediately did it again. I took off the gas, and she stalled. So I pulled over on the side of the highway, and started it back up. She barely idled, and there was a pretty horrible knocking/slapping sound coming from the motor.

I shut it off, then took this video :

YouTube - My motor having a seizure...


The noise you hear DID go away shortly after, but the second I even blipped the gas pedal, it came right back. So maybe there's some sort of timing/balance issue?

I opted to not even try to drive it any further, and shelled out for a tow back into the city. Since the initial knock/stall, the engine has run for maybe 2 minutes at the most. It's currently sitting near a shop I have access to, but not until Monday.

Once I get at it, I'll start by draining the oil, and probably pulling the oil pan to look for any metal shavings/chunks. After that, I'll pull the valve cover, and start working my way down until I find anything.


Does anybody have any ideas at all what this could be, or what I should be looking for?




Some other non-related points that I'm sure people will mention... the car had a bunch of work done to it before I got it. That being said...

-I'm aware that I should probably have cam gear covers
-I'm aware that there is a shitty bolt on the exhaust manifold
-I'm aware that the blue valve cover looks terrible, but you wouldn't believe how much blue shit I have already taken out of this car
-I'm aware that I pronounced "highway" funny... I didn't feel like going for a "take 2" on the vid.
-I'm aware that there is a Hyundai spark plug cover. That I put on as a joke, kind of. A few years back, I was building a 1g 4g63t to put in a 93 Hyundai Excel... that plan fell through, but I still have the built motor and obviously the sweet ass plug cover... the one that WAS on this motor was spray painted blue, and was all busted and shitty.
-The CEL was already on prior to this incident, and I have not yet had a chance to pull the codes since to see if anything new came up.
-I'm aware the dipstick top ring is missing/busted off... blame the last guy.



If this just ends up being a head issue, I DO have a rebuilt head, but it's from a 1g. Will this make much of a difference, or will it be a lot more work to get that in there?

 

[tsi4g63dohc]

whats up with your dipstick ? it looks like its missing ?

 

[uberswede]

I tried to cover all the little things in the side notes to avoid questions like this... I added a part about the dipstick now too, haha.

It's there, just the top is busted off. Already looking for a dipstick that isn't white (all I can find so far)

 

[constant_proj21]

That sounds like rod knock to me, prob spun a bearing or something of the sort. I would imagine you will find some shavings in the oil pan.

 

[uberswede]

A friend of mine mentioned spun bearing as well. If this is the case, would you think anything major would be toast?

Can I just re-do all the bearings, etc. from underneath without pulling the motor, or am I more likely going to have to replace the block?

 

[horizontalkev]

i was able to get to my rod bearings by just dropping the oil pan and such. Anything new?

 

[uberswede]

I figured that was likely doable. By "Anything new?", were you being sarcastic and implying I should have already known this? Haha... or were you legitimately asking?

If the latter of the two, nothing is new yet. I won't have access to the car/shop until tomorrow morning.


Now, would it be wise too to pull the head and examine the tops of the pistons?

And speaking of heads, as mentioned earlier, I have a re-built 1g head already. Would that be a simple swap if it's necessary? Or am I looking at quite a bit of extra work to get that to work?

 

[horizontalkev]

i meant by "anything new" is if you found out anything about the motor ha. I think you should drop your oil pan first and check your rod bearings and rods and check for metal shavings in the oil pan after dropping it. as for the 1G swap im not very positive, im fairly new to DSM's, i switched over from the mustang to the eclipse.

 

[Blackjet18t]

Sounds like rod knock to me. I had one buddy with a 6-bolt swap in his 2g and spun a bearing twice. I had another buddy that had the stock 7-bolt motor on e316g that ended up with crankwalk/spun bearing twice.

 

[Cypress_h]

now dont quote me on this but i think you will need to do new head studs and head gasket to get the 1g head to work on the 2g 7 bolt........ other than that they should be the same

 

[uberswede]

As I'd mentioned in the original post, "Once I get at it, I'll start by draining the oil, and probably pulling the oil pan to look for any metal shavings/chunks. After that, I'll pull the valve cover, and start working my way down until I find anything."

So I will update at that point.

Is there any reason that spun bearings seems to be such a common occurance?

If head studs and a gasket is all I need, that's hardly an issue... if I had the head off, I'd have done that anyways.