Yeah pretty much just like it says. Everything has been running pretty good up until tonight. Dropped the car into 3'rd gear at about 60, so nothin major on the tach w/ 3.42 and punched it, took her up through the rpm range hit 5700 rpms and it stumbled, hesitated, and then just died. No power or anything. I was like oh my God, wtf! Had major vibration up until she settled down at 2000rpms in 5'th gear. Anything below 2300rpms very minor difference in driveability, to anyone else it would have been unnoticeable. No change in driveability through different speeds either. Just different rpms and when tach'd up in neutral, vibration heavily over 2300rpms, heavy enough to where I would not tach it above 4000 just so I hope not to damage anything else. Upon inspection under the hood a loud banging/pop pop pop on the driver side more so than the passenger side. I know my car is normally loud and clacks due to the rr and the cam and what not but this was out of the ordinary and very loud and predominant banging sound. So, what's wrong?

I have had this engine for 4000 miles, gettin ready to change the oil for the 2'nd time. It was built by Golen Engine Service. I have no clue what is wrong someone please help.

 

check all your plugs and wires realy good first it seems like a spark issue causing it to misfire.

 

Wow, that would be great if that was all it is.

 

I would figure that out first I am sure it is related. Check your RR my buddys has pro mag. on his 383 and one rocker came loose 3 times.

 

Well checked the plugs and wires, everything is fine there. I have had a spark plug wire come off in the past and this sound is no where near what that sounded like.

Just one other side note, I just put right at 10 gallons of 93 octane in my car, and this service station (Sheetz) has had red bags on several of their pumps pretty much since they have been open. I had driven for about 15 miles when this happened, and when I filled up I had a little less than a 1/4 of a tank. Dunno if bad gas could do what is happening but the more info ya'll have the better the analysis you can make.

 

You need to pull the valve covers off and take a look.

 

Goin to pull the covers off soon. Chad Golen said it is prolly either a roller rocker problem, or a bent/broken pushrod. Hopefully that is all.

 

I'd agree with Golen.

 

yup

 

Valve Covers are off.......checked the rockers and currently they are fine. I have not turned the engine over once or anything like that to check the remaining ones. Nothing looks out of the ordinary though, but I have no expertise in this area. I take it that the rockers can feel like they are on there fine until they have the pushrods come back up?

I was expecting a more time consuming problem than this, glad I was wrong. Oh well the more stuff I get to do due to minor (hopefully) problems the more I will learn. Thanks for the help and if anyone can make any other suggestions to check for let me know.

 

Turned the engine over, checked everything, and repeated 5 times. Nothing, everything looked fine, nothing loose or anything. So now what?

Considering the fact that I put 8 gallons of gas in my tank which was below a 1/4 of a tank, could bad gas be the problem? If not "bad gas" a possible 87 octane instead of 93 cause the knock? I know I pushed the correct button for 93 but as previously stated the Sheetz gas station has had red bags over multiple pumps since they have been opened. I spoke with the manager, today and he pretty much was like ok, well here is our corperate # take it up with them.

The sound is not coming from anything hitting the valve covers themselves. The odd thing is when the engine is rev'd slowly to 2000rpms the sound is not noticeable nor is it there, as soon as it hits 2300rpms the vibration starts. I mean a bad vibration that can be felt through the tranny, shifter, the car, everything. I am just at a loss, tired, confused, and just want to know what the hell is wrong with my car.

 

Sounds like something is out of balance. Is this a stock flywheel your using?

 

problem with that is he's been driving it for 4000 miles and this just started. I would do a compression test. you'll have to pull all the plugs, and borrow a compression gauge from an auto parts store in your area that loans/rents/sells them. very simple to do, and can tell alot of the internal condition of an engine. not sure if your familiar with this procedure or not, so I'll just explain.
step s
1-remove all sp. plugs
2-install gauge on cyl. #1
3-crank eng. over for a spec. amount of time with throttle blades held open(jamb a screwdriver in there or something to hold it open for the duration of the test) I usually listen for 2 revolutions of the engine. make sure ea. cyl. test is the same length of cranking time to make the runs true comparisons. if you think you found a bad one, triple check it to make sure you get the same result every time.
4-write down 3
5 repeat this 2 times for each cylinder.

what your lookin for is a cyl. or two that are down more then like 10% of the other cyl.s. so if #1 has 150psi, the others should all be within 15psi . also, your lookin for a low # across the board. I believe the target range for a street engin is between 145-185 if I remember right.
chris

 

I hope I am wrong, but that is exactly what happened when I spun a rod bearing....
Did you notice what the oil pressure was doing?

 

Oil pressure seemed to remain the same. However I did notice a quick drop in idle at stop lights and when I came to a stop/coming to a stop. Generally it is a graduale (sp? sorry been drinking tonight) drop in rpms however I did notice it would drop to about 900rpms and then go back up to 1100/1200rpms at stops, which is def unusual. Basically it would go to normal idle or hang high till I got down to 10mph or less and then drop back to a normal idle. The SES light was flashing for about the last 10 miles of the trip, however this would every now and again if I left it in a specific gear over 3000rpms for an extended amount of time, hopefully that makes sense. This just doesn't seem right to have major internal problems 4000 miles into the engine.

Are broken engine mounts a possibility as I have never replaced them. Would the engine mounts show signs or wear and tear or is it just an all of a sudden thing? Still confused and definitely perplexed......