Did I really just throw a rod? (1 Viewer)

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Jan 24, 2022
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california
Yesterday morning I hit the road for a weekend camping trip with some friends, headed for the angeles national forest. 15 miles into the drive I noticed a knocking sound developing. I quickly pulled off the freeway as the knock grew louder. Didn’t feel any power loss but it sounded terrible. Fearing the worst I turned the car off and have not started it since. Just before doing so I took this short video. I called a tow and had it taken home. I’m now 100 miles away wondering if I toasted my engine. Do any of you guys have any thoughts based on the video (I will post below)? Is there a simple way for me to test in the driveway before I have it taken to the shop? Should I not start the engine at all? I just had the engine pulled and rebuilt ~500 miles ago by a reputable shop in Orange County. I checked the oil level the night before leaving, I was mid way between the low and full line on the dipstick. It was running perfect up to this point…
 
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Don’t think it’s a rod or it prolly wouldn’t run at all or would have died or launched a rod thru the bottom end, it sounds more like a lifter or valve hitting. Take it back to who repairEd/rebuilt it… tow it.
 
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The plan is to take it back but I’m losing faith in these guys. Had to bring it back 3 times to re-seal the timing cover now this…
 
If you take it somewhere else — you’ll be starting from ground zero again with all the costs associated with that. Hopefully the shop that flubbed up will honor their mistake and it won’t cost much to make things right.

A persistently leaky timing cover is understandable — they’re old & flimsy and can be hard to make leak free. I wouldn’t judge their competence on them trying to seal that thing.
 
If you take it somewhere else — you’ll be starting from ground zero again with all the costs associated with that. Hopefully the shop that flubbed up will honor their mistake and it won’t cost much to make things right.

A persistently leaky timing cover is understandable — they’re old & flimsy and can be hard to make leak free. I wouldn’t judge their competence on them trying to seal that thing.
You’re probably right, back to the mechanic I go.
 
Where did you take it?

A way to determine if it's a bottom end or top end issue is by running the engine and removing one spark plug wire at a time. If the knock goes away or substantially drops off when you pull the plug wire, it's something in that cylinder bottom half. If you go through all the wires and no change in sound, it's a valve or lifter issue.

Don't rev it.
 
I would go and get some warranty.
 
Like Spike Strip said, kill a cylinder and see what happens.

We've rebuilt three 2Fs at our shop, and on two of them received crappy aftermarket lifters. The ITM and EngineTech lifters that come in the aftermarket rebuilds are hot garbage, and fracture under where the pushrod seats in the cup, which lets them collapse in on themselves. Which more or less creates the noise that it appears you have. The OEM lifters are hollow one-piece cast units, and infinitely better than anything aftermarket.

If they rebuilt it using any number of the aftermarket kits, my money's on that being the source of your noise. But of course, pull the ignition and see if the noise drops off first, or have the shop do a thorough inspection to rule it out.
 
I had it towed to the shop first thing this morning. Did not have an opportunity to check each cylinder and also feared f**king things up further (I have a tendency to do that).

I had the rebuild done at top line performance in Huntington Beach. Although they have mixed reviews on this forum they have been pretty straightforward with me, and every time I have been by the shop there are 4 or 5 other 60 series on the lifts and in the parking lot.

Still haven't heard back yet...will post something when I know more.
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Just out of curiosity, has the shop given you any updates?
 
I called middle of last week, I was told they were pulling things apart to take a look. Have not heard back yet. Not going to speculate whether that is a good or bad sign.

I will definitely post something once I know more, in case anyone has the same misfortune in the future.
 
It wasn't properly installed.

You should ask the mechanic to retorque everything before he closes it back up.
That much is for certain. I have a feeling it is going to be more than just retorquing. They're going to pull the crank to check for damage to the rod lobe. Who knows what happened once that nut fell off. As I understand it they sent the motor to another shop for the actual rebuild and machine work, then buttoned everything up with new gaskets at their shop. So now there is some back and forth in terms of who is liable and how it's going to get taken care of. I'm at my wits end with this rig, coming up on a year of ownership and I've only been able to enjoy/drive it for ~3 months.
 
Just to close the loop on this one (if anyone cares), I finally got my cruiser back today. The engine ended up needing to be pulled, sent back to the machine shop for re-rebuild, then reinstalled. It has been a long and emotional road but everything sounds and feels good at this point and I am just hoping for some worry free miles ahead of me.

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Knock on wood (sorry, couldn't resist) that you now have many many trouble-free miles of Kalifornia driving ahead of you. Cheers to you for persevering and getting the truck back on the road. She's a keeper.

🍻
 
Just to close the loop on this one (if anyone cares), I finally got my cruiser back today. The engine ended up needing to be pulled, sent back to the machine shop for re-rebuild, then reinstalled. It has been a long and emotional road but everything sounds and feels good at this point and I am just hoping for some worry free miles ahead of me.

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of course we want to hear your resolution to the snafu! Glad to hear that you are back behind the wheel, hope you have many, many miles of smiles before it needs service again. :)
 

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