Rod Knock - Go JDM 7M or Overhaul Current 7M?

What To Do About Rod Knock Engine


  • Total voters
    32

Facime

Leather work expert
Jun 1, 2006
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save up 250 bucks, rent a cherry picker, pull your motor, flip it over pull the pan, find your toasted bearing and replace it. Put the pan back on, flush the oil, put the motor back in and fire it up. Should take no more than a weekend.

Then drive the car sparingly while you save up the money for a proper rebuild. During that time read everything you can about rebuilding a motor. Ask questions here, read some articles on the topic, whatever it takes. Or better yet find the time to take an engine rebuilding class at your local community college, and buy a rebuildable motor and do it durning your class time with expert guidence. You'll learn a ton, you save a ton and you'll have the satisfaction of having done it yourself.

When I was in High School, thats what I did with my first car. Of course, the mk2 didnt even exist then...lol
 
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pimptrizkit

thread killer
Dec 22, 2005
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theWeezL said:
save up 250 bucks, rent a cherry picker, pull your motor, flip it over pull the pan, find your toasted bearing and replace it. Put the pan back on, flush the oil, put the motor back in and fire it up. Should take no more than a weekend.

Then drive the car sparingly while you save up the money for a proper rebuild. During that time read everything you can about rebuilding a motor. Ask questions here, read some articles on the topic, whatever it takes. Or better yet find the time to take an engine rebuilding class at your local community college, and buy a rebuildable motor and do it durning your class time with expert guidence. You'll learn a ton, you save a ton and you'll have the satisfaction of having done it yourself.

When I was in High School, thats what I did with my first car. Of course, the mk2 didnt even exist then...lol


not the best advice, exspecaly for not hearing how loud his knock is..

if his rod's are no longer true, he'll toss the second set of bearings, the oil change , coolant, gasket's out the window.. waist alot of money. and become very frusterated..

i didn't vote, i wanted to peice my mind..

rebuild your motor and do it right the first time.
if your scared to go into the bottom end it'll cost you more money,

but if you can handle workin on your car and puttin the gut's of the engine back in, you should be able to do a full rebuild for around 1500 (give or take 500)

by the time you have your motor shipped to your house (jdm style) it will cost you near 15 or more. mine was 1475 and they fubard the oil pan during shipping, i pulled hte head off to put in my arp stud's and the head gasket was starting to blow! and the block had a nice crack on the deck, (search my buikd thread for pic's)
needless if i didn't have an extra pan i would have been out another 45 bucks, and the gasket kit cost me 135... before i realized i should have torn it down and put in a mhg , but i didn't i blew another oem hg, and cost me another 500 to rebuild the head and get a mhg, but i learn hard, and blew that latter to realized the block needed to be surfaced and the only proper way to do so is disasmble the motor, with this being said,
there is no reason to buy an jdm motor if you have to yank the crank to put a head gasket in that wont blow!
 

Facime

Leather work expert
Jun 1, 2006
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^ this from the guy who has rebuilt his motor how many times in the last year? :biglaugh:


My advice is perfectly valid. No, perhaps not the ideal way to go for all people, but given his circumstances its not the worst way to go either.

To be honest, if he is like half the guys who own mk3's that blow a HG while on a budget and try to "start it" themselves, I bet you $100 bucks its still sitting and rotting 6 in boxes months from now.

If ya dont have the money and/or knowhow, or friends with it, you dont belong even thinking about pulling a motor yourself. How many Supras do you know of sitting in yards with their guts rusting away?
 

ChadMKIII

Yup, Thats The G/F
Jul 14, 2006
369
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Bay Area, Ca
My ideal thing would be to buy another DD for now, pull the motor, and do it myself. I'm really not afraid of the bottom end, if I'm careful and read up enough I should be able to get that done ok.

But it doesn't look like I can swing it, as I refuse to be stuck in some pile of bolts for 6 months, I need something decent. (yes, I'm giving myself that much time. I'm still a senior in HS, busy as hell, and will be starting a job soon. I won't be able to do much of anything till summer)

And if I'm going to buy something I like driving, it would be cheaper to pay a shop to do it. Thus its prolly what I'll do.

I'm pulling for a 97 Caddy Catera, only 3 grand, 100k miles, beautiful in and out, but I don't think it'll happen. :(

Most likely be stuck in the truck for a month while a shop does it.
 

pimptrizkit

thread killer
Dec 22, 2005
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theWeezL said:
^ this from the guy who has rebuilt his motor how many times in the last year? :biglaugh:



If ya dont have the money and/or knowhow, or friends with it, you dont belong even thinking about pulling a motor yourself. How many Supras do you know of sitting in yards with their guts rusting away?

lol dont you know , thats how i got my supra for 500 bucks..


i would like to say ive been in my motor so many times cause when i ask a question i dont get strait awnsers, time run's out and i have to make a decision,. i try to save a dime and it bites me.. god belive me, if i knew changing my rod bolts was going to distort my rod's i would have taken them to my machiest and had him resize it then and there!


well i really hope you stick to the supra, their great fun cars, but when they need attention you have to be a man and give her what she needs and how she wants it..

any ways, happy boostin!
 

Nick M

Black Rifles Matter
Sep 9, 2005
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ChadMKIII said:
My ideal thing would be to buy another DD for now, pull the motor, and do it myself. I'm really not afraid of the bottom end, if I'm careful and read up enough I should be able to get that done ok.
There is no shame in driving a 92 Honda Civic as a daily driver to save cash in gas and insurance.

Then do a proper build. If you don't have the funds, you shouldn't have the hobby. That is why I got rid of the Supra in 97.
 

ChadMKIII

Yup, Thats The G/F
Jul 14, 2006
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Nick M said:
There is no shame in driving a 92 Honda Civic as a daily driver to save cash in gas and insurance.

Then do a proper build. If you don't have the funds, you shouldn't have the hobby. That is why I got rid of the Supra in 97.
I would hate it. It would absolutely drive me nuts every time I got in and turned the key. In my dad's words, I have "champagne taste on a beer-bottle budget." (He also says I'm the equivalent of a nuclear bomb on his finances, but thats another discussion :p)

I definitely don't wanna get out of the Supra game, and I figure it will cost me the same to sell the Supra as is and get another car that I don't mind driving as it will to rebuild this one, and I won't be ale to know the history of another car, so.....might as well rebuild!

But like I said, the getting another DD and rebuilding on my own is more of a pipe dream. Most likely I'll just pay a shop and borrow a car from a grandparent.
 

Nick M

Black Rifles Matter
Sep 9, 2005
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You don't have to get out permanently. Just until it is easier for you. I bought my first in 94, second in 96, and got rid of it late in 97. Then in 2002, I picked up another one. By the way, I hardly do any mods to the car.
 

staticpat

Supra Chair!
Mar 30, 2005
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Birmingham, AL
theWeezL said:
save up 250 bucks, rent a cherry picker, pull your motor, flip it over pull the pan, find your toasted bearing and replace it. Put the pan back on, flush the oil, put the motor back in and fire it up. Should take no more than a weekend.

Then drive the car sparingly while you save up the money for a proper rebuild. During that time read everything you can about rebuilding a motor. l


I ran into a similar situation and this is the route I took, only cheaper. I have a spare shortblock I'm building, but I still wanted to drive my car until it was done. I opted to spend a few weekends to drop the subframe and change the bearings from the bottom with engine in car. In the end I was out less than 100 bucks, so if it gets knock again its not that big a loss. Just take your time and do it right or you'll be in there again. Also I stopped driving the car as soon as I heard the faintest noise to assure I didn't scar the crank or mess up a rod. If everything turns out OK I'll probably do a writeup.
 

GrimJack

Administrator
Dec 31, 1969
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Sorry it took me so long to weigh back in here.

The reason BHGs eat bearings is pretty simple - the BHG contaminated your oil with coolant, making the goo that is commonly referred to as the oil milkshake. The milkshake doesn't behave like oil should - it doesn't pump well, and it doesn't lubricate well either. This gives the engine two possible ways to fry bearings: either the oil doesn't pump enough to keep the bearings lubed, or what does get pumped there doesn't lube enough.

The reason that you wouldn't notice it until the mechanic gave it back is simple as well - the starting stages of Rod Knock aren't audible, especially in the cabin with the windows up. So by the time you can hear it, you've likely already put ~1000 miles on it in this condition.

It *might* still be the mechanic's fault - if he didn't plug the oil passages in the block while cleaning off the block, and some of the old gasket material fell inside the block... and it was small enough to get through the mesh on the oil pickup... and your oil filter was in bypass mode... and it managed to jam itself in the oil galley that supplied that specific bearing... THEN that bearing would likely die as soon as you revved the engine reasonably high for more than a minute. There are an awful lot of 'IF's in there though!
 

ChadMKIII

Yup, Thats The G/F
Jul 14, 2006
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GJ, thanks. I can see how that could happen where its not his fault. Ugh....
I don't remember paying special attention to the look of the oil before I took it in to the mechanic. I know my coolant looked terribly dirty, even after adding tons and tons as it kept draining itself, so I assumed oil was getting into the coolant. I remembered reading somewhere (perhaps it was incorrect) that it was either oil goes into coolant or coolant goes into oil, but both could not happen in a BHG, it was either one way or the other. So I just assumed it was oil to coolant and didn't bother checking. Retard I am.....

The timing was just *so* uncanny that I noticed it after I got it back from him, not before, but looking at your list of "If's" I'm afraid it might just be from the BHG...at which point I'd for sure have to pay full....grrr....

GotToyota? said:
Where is the "Go 1J" option? ;)
My First Post said:
OH YEAH - I'm not even considering JZ. But thanks.
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I like my torque, but thanks ;)
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