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2G What is this noise? Balance shaft belt snapped or what?

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So, my DSM took a crap on me about 6 months ago. It's been sitting for so long because I kept having problems with it and lost my job at the time, so couldn't afford to fix it. But, as I was driving down the highway, my timing belt decided to skip on the crank almost 180 degrees out, bending every single on of my valves. There were no stripped teeth, no visible belt damage at all. But it was out of time. Then, I replaced everything, mounted the engine all back together, timed it, and started it. Got this horrible tapping noise. I mean a LOUD tap coming from the top end. Took the valve cover and found 4 lifters that weren't holding at all. Changed all the lifters, started the car, same damn noise.

The car is hesitant to accelerate. Can't get it above 3-4k rpm at all. It's idling at like 2k -2.5k rpm. I drained the oil, didn't see any shavings at all. I have no clue what's going on with the block. I'm about to pull the engine and tear it apart to see what it could be. Any chance anyone can give me some ideas on what to check now?

I was thinking checking the balance shaft bearings for some reason. I just am stumped as to what it could be. I mean damn. Not a rod, not lifters, wtf?

Thanks!
 
You are aware that after a rebuild, your lifters will tick for about 15 min.

You did prime the lifters correct? Like you took each one, and put a small drill bit in them and squirted all the oil out by compressing them?

And lastly have you tried to adjust your throttle cable/biss?
 
Yes sir I did, and we did let it run for like 15 minutes. But this is not just lifter tapping without oil. This is a LOUD, metal-on-metal sounding tap. I've done a 4G63T before and heard the lifters before they pumped up, this was 10x as loud.
 
When you replaced the timing belt were all the timing marks lined up correctly?

Since it stated makeing this noise have you pulled the timing belt cover to ensure all of the timing marks still line up?
 
Nope, all in time. I checked it every time I could. Even the first time I started it, there was no binding, and I rotated the assembly 6 times like needed 3 times with 15 minute intervals.

I completely forgot now, I have a video up on YouTube of the noise the car was making. Here is the link if anyone would like to check.

YouTube - Loud Tapping from Head. DSM
 
on a v6 i have seen someone bend the camshaft due to it jumping time like you said. The noise was the camshaft wobbling in the camlocks.

Another thing to check is if one of the roller rockers fell off the lifter and the cam is hitting the lifter in the head
 
Well bad news. It is a rod. Or at least something that shredded up in the bottom end. I drained the oil again today just for pre-caution and there were metal flakes and pieces everywhere.

I did check it for bearing flakes before. The car is at my buddy's shop and he's letting me fix the car there, but my friend decided to take a look at the car for me and started it to test out lifters for me, so the flakes only became apparent now.

I'm pulling the engine tomorrow, and i'm thinking maybe there is a hope of salvaging this engine? I won't know until I look at the rods themselves with the pan off. I didn't pull the pan because I knew I'd be able to see it in the oil itself.

Anyone willing to sell me a 6 bolt longblock? :)

EDIT: Just for shits and giggles, have a look at this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcMfKWBUeOk
 
Last edited:
So, what does everyone think I should do now? I'm thinking of taking my crank and having it checked, and hopefully using the block again. I took the rod cap off, and there was no bearing left. Is there a good chance I can still use this block or is it time for a new engine?
 
thats a sight everyone with a 3000gt gets to know. where dsm's have crankwalk issues 3000gt's have spun berring issues
 
Hello everyone!

So, I just recently got my beloved DSM back on the road after a timing belt jump, and blown rod bearing.

I got a used, but in good condition 7 Bolt short block with the balance shafts eliminated from my girlfriend's brother, who is a DSM freak also. New head also.

My problem is that I think i'm having oil pressure problems. I start up the car, and my oil pressure needle is in the tank. The car has no audible issues, no tapping or anything, but the oil pressure is low as hell. The oil pressure light is usually on during idle, but it will erratically go on and off. Once I start driving, my oil pressure is at perfect level with no issues. I don't get what's going on. I used the oil filter housing that came with the engine, so I don't know if it's the sender, or an actual issue.

Anyone have any ideas?
 
Im going to guess that it has a crank walk issue. Did you check the crank end play before installing the engine?. I would have at least took the rod caps off to check the condition of the rod bearings as well checked the crank end play.
With the light coming on and low pressure on the gauge low oil pressure is a sure thing and should be looked into further meaning checking the rod bearings and crank end play.
Your oil pressure will be normal while driving as you are raising the rpm of the engine forcing the oil pump to make pressure.
 
TSIfreek said:
Im going to guess that it has a crank walk issue. Did you check the crank end play before installing the engine?. I would have at least took the rod caps off to check the condition of the rod bearings as well checked the crank end play.
With the light coming on and low pressure on the gauge low oil pressure is a sure thing and should be looked into further meaning checking the rod bearings and crank end play.
Your oil pressure will be normal while driving as you are raising the rpm of the engine forcing the oil pump to make pressure.
Click to expand...

No rod problems. The bearings were in good condition and no crankwalk that I can tell. No clutch engagement issues either.
 
my friend had the say exact problem that you have and he ended up blowing the motor after 2 months of running the car like that since u did the timing belt i can safely assume that u changed oil pump water pump ect ect ... the only other thing would be your bearings as stated above if it was rings i think the car would be smoking from the exhuast please correct me if im wrong ...
 
2x on putting a real guage in. The sending unit could be bad sending a weak signal.
 
So, with not even 100 miles on the rebuild, my car ####ed up again.

I was at a light and it was idling, was going to turn and RPMs just dropped and engine stopped.

I saw smoke coming from the timing belt area. Tried to quick crank the engine, and the cam gears ARE NOT even moving. I am going to take apart the timing belt and see what happened. I think my oil pump seized. Either that or I broke my timing belt.

If it's the oil pump, you think my engine is still salvageable? I haven't tried to turn the crank over by hand yet.
 
So, I finally decided to stop moping around about my DSM and go check out what's up with it. Previously, what had happened was that I was driving down the road, clutched in to stop at light, and at the light the motor just shut off. Not tap, rattle, nothing, just shut off. I go to find the the timing belt won't budge. I figured my oil pump had seized, taking the engine with it.

Today, I cut my timing belt off (It was a piece of crap I was going to change anyway), and what do you know my crank is moving freely. I'm going to take off the timing cover and see the oil pump gear.

Do you guys think it's likely the motor is damaged? There was metal in the oil, but I think that could have been from the oil pump gear. What do you guys think?
 
Anything is possible...you gotta open the motor up to find out exactly what went wrong
 
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