Rebuilt my 93 SS. Rod knock?

[monkeyposeur]

I bought a 93 SS w/160k & 4EAT in January. A friend of mine from the LGT forum found it, checked it out and bought it. I then bought it from him. I live in SLC, and the SS was in Denver. Another friend of mine offered to fly out to Denver and drive it to SLC. 70 miles out of Denver it overheated and she quickly pulled over. It was towed to a small town and she was stuck there for a few days while I did the runaround with a local mechanic who wouldn't listen to me. Long story short, I asked him to do a hydrocarbon test and it tested positive for oil in the coolant. The HGs were going. I had the car transported to SLC on a trailer.

I then removed the engine and disassembled it down to the shortblock. I replaced every seal that I could get to short of splitting the block. It was my first engine removal and rebuild so it took me a few months to do it. I replaced the timing components too, of course.

So I was finally able to start it up today. Sounds like there is a little rod knock and I am pretty bummed out if that is the case since I spent so much money and time rebuilding the engine. $2300 for the car, and over $1.5k on HGs, seals, timing, etc. Not to mention the $600 or more I spent getting it delivered to SLC.

It seems to run fine and I took it on a few short test drives. It overheated and I burped the system a few times. I don't know if that fixed the problem yet. CEL comes on and off but I wasn't able to get the codes pulled today. I installed a new knock sensor.

Here is a short video of the initial start up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VckpQACh ... wiY9VoDt4=

So, does it sound like a rod knock? And if so will I have to split the block and replace the pistons? On Monday I will pull plugs out and see it the sound goes away to determine what cylinder may be causing the problem. I'm ready to scrap the SS soon if I can't figure this out. I have to move on with my life at some point.

[mike-tracy]

I'm not an expert by any means but it sounds like the heads to me. Try and see if one side is louder than the other? Does it go away or lessen when warm?


Here's a couple of vids of subaru rod knock on youtube, sounds different to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sik-OddhWzo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFoOgdMqUoQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bWIkBupM28

[ciper]

I don't think that is rod knock. Its either man bearings (unlikely) or a collapsed hydraulic lifter.

[daveh]

Sounds like a sticky lifter to me, try some lifter medic or something of the sort first, and take it for a good drive. I bought a 94 that sounded similar, we poured a cup of diesel into the oil, and did a limiter pull up an 8% grade, it cleared up right away.

[Alphius]

Yeah, I agree, it sounds like a stuck lifter or a bad exhaust leak at the header or in the uppipe.

[Legacy777]

Worse case, you can pull the valve covers & rockers, and bleed the lifters. They should be firm after bleeding. Sometimes they will collapse upon initial engine startup if the engine wasn't primed with oil prior to startup.

I'd probably lean towards lifters as well.

As for the codes, have you tried using the instructions on my site to pull the codes?
www.surrealmirage.com/subaru/engine.html

[monkeyposeur]

Thanks for the advice. I'll bleed the lifters on Monday and give an update. I read the FSM procedure and it seems relatively straight forward.

BTW I may have found another SS in rough shape w/5MT (dark blue) for about $1k out here in SLC if anyone is interested. I may go take a look.

edit: Thanks for the code reading link!

[Legacy777]

You're welcome.

Feel free to post the SS near you in the Car Lot forum.

[monkeyposeur]

It was a stuck lifter after all!

Upon listening, I could hear that the noise was coming from the driver's side. I have a spare set of EJ22T heads so I took the rocker assembly off that, bled the bottom row of HLAs because they needed it, the top row of HLAs were all locked. I took the valve cover off and pulled the rocker assembly off and sure enough one of the HLAs was stuck. I swapped the assemblies and she is running like a champ now!

I pulled the CEL code. It was flashing 35, so I guess I have to get a new evap purge control valve. It looks like it will be a bitch to replace without taking the intake mani off. So am thinking I will just bolt a new one on top of the intake mani and reroute a few vacuum lines as I have read others have done.

As far as the CEL, I could only find the two green connectors. At first I could only find one and was about to post that I only had one, lol. But I found it. I looked for a while for the black ones but no luck. I guess it doesn't matter anyway since I was able to pull the code with the green connectors.

Thanks for everyone's help. I can't wait to register the SS after I get the CEL to go away and romp her around town. I took her for a quick test drive and even with a 4MT it is a lot of fun and is pretty fast. It will be even more fun after I swap in a 5MT in the next year.

[Legacy777]

Look on the other side of the steering wheel for the black connectors. Here's a pic that shows both connectors, so you know what you're looking for.

http://www.main.experiencetherave.com/s ... cuhide.jpg