Just over 800 miles on motor and shot!?

[DOUNVME]

haven't been on in a few years. I was thinking if I don't talk about it, I will forget about it. Well, several weeks ago I got my 86 GN out.

With the breakdown of 4 cars in the last two weeks (talk about luck) I was forced to put my GN on the road for the first time in 5 years.

I just put a brand new set of BFG's on this morn and headed to work. I started driving it wednesday and it ran fine. 125 miles round trip. 20 miles/gallon.

This morning I get stuck in the intersection and I gun it to get out of the way. Probably made 5-6 lbs of boost. I get about 3-400 yards up the road and I hear a grinding sound. Similar to no oil reaching the turbo. I dial up oil pressure and have about 47 lbs. Dial up 02 volts and I see 2.4-3.1 on retard timing. I let the window down and can tell the sound is coming from the motor. I immediately pull over and the sound is def. coming from bottom end like I wiped a journal bearing or something.

No knocking at all. has clean oil and enough oil. Opened Oil filter and no metal shavings.

What am i looking at here?

BTW, my wife tried to buy me a car wednesday to keep me from getting this thing out and driving it.

Running 93 octane gas, 255lph Walboro, hot wire kit, big mouth intake, TH 4" DP, Cotton's single shot, JE pistons, power plate, 3" up pipe, stock IC, dual fans, stock wheels/tire size, Champion Heads (stage 1). Called KDK (assembled motor) and Kevin said it detonated but couldn't be sure cause there is no knocking???

Where do I go from here?

 

[DailyDrifter]

We should start a club . That sucks man, it could be the bearings, could be a broken flexplate or loose converter bolts too. Good luck

 

[BIGPSI]

it was mad at you for not driving it in 5 years. LOL sorry to hear that.

 

[Buickforlife]

Sorry to hear that. I remember when the 350 in my skylark started "knocking". It sparked a whole GSX tribute car with a 464.

Turned out it was a broken flexplate. Hopefully yours will turn out to be something insignificant like mine was.

 

[mygn276]

The good news is there is no metal in the filter. Check to see if the flywheel is touching the cross over pipe. Been there and done that.

 

[jasjamz]

Take the belt off see if the sound goes away. If so you can check to see what is bad that is driven by the belt. If it is still there, remove the torque converter bolts and see if it goes away.

 

[forcedfedv6]

Did you use a timing belt tensioner on a roller chain, if you did the tensioner may have given out and that the noise you are hearing, metal to metal on chain, not a good thing..

 

[Nick Micale]

.......With the breakdown of 4 cars in the last two weeks (talk about luck) I was forced to put my GN on the road for the first time in 5 years...................

Running 93 octane gas,.............and Kevin said it detonated but couldn't be sure cause there is no knocking???

Was all the 93 octane fresh, or some of it 5 years old?

 

[gczarny]

Was all the 93 octane fresh, or some of it 5 years old?

if the gas was from 5 years ago then there is your poroblem , it was CHEAP gas

 

[whitehot1]

It was probably the old gas still left in the tank that caused the problem, like was already said.

I'm curious though what did you do this on,in this part of your statement from above.

I dial up oil pressure and have about 47 lbs


John :smile:

 

[DOUNVME]

Was all the 93 octane fresh, or some of it 5 years old?

None of the gas was more than 6-8 weeks old when I started driving it. I did, since Wednesday, pump approx. 12 gallons into the tank. I drove it Wednesday, filled it up with 93 octane, drove it Thursday, filled it up at the same gas station (to check my mpg), then Friday morning this happened.

I topped the tank off at both fillups so I have to assume there was mostly "fresh" gas in the car.

 

[DOUNVME]

It was probably the old gas still left in the tank that caused the problem, like was already said.

I'm curious though what did you do this on,in this part of your statement from above.

I dial up oil pressure and have about 47 lbs


John :smile:

I was wrong John. I just went back and read the Scanmaster manual. After several years of not reading it, I forgot was the abbreviations actually meant. I was interpreting L8 as oil pressure but this is wrong. I don't actually know what the oil pressure was.

One more thing. I can remember my O2 mv reading around the 400-500+ mark those 2-3 days that I started driving it.

When I was driving it more often, several years ago, I can remember the O2 readings being around 50-60 but never did I "see" the retard timing greater than .3 or so. I also ran a 7.8 in the 1/4 with 114 octane on Nitto DR's with it running like this.

It didn't seem to have the power it used to when I got it out last Wed/Thurs either. It used to smoke the stock tires when I pushed it WOT while rolling about 20-25 mph. Last week it would just "take off".

Is this an indication something was done wrong when assembling the motor?

 

[DOUNVME]

Great NEWS!

I feel like such a dummy! [also, in above reply, that time was only in the 1/8 mile, not the 1/4 mile.]

It was the water pump causing all of the noise! Just got off the phone with my mechanic. I feel like a complete idiot but I would not have known that from just listening to it run. Sound seemed to be generating from the bottom end.

To quickly explain my ignorance: I, initially, would have taken the belt off to hear it run. That way, I can begin to isolate what is causing the noise. I am standing in the parking lot with Khakis on and ZERO tools. I am 65 miles from home and my shop and I had been late for work for 4 times in the past 7 days. I also had some deadlines to meet before COB on Friday. I just assumed the worst and called a tow truck to come get it before someone else did!

NOTE TO SELF: Always carry an adjustable wrench.

 

[XLR8]

That's good to hear - a waterpump is much cheaper than bearings!
It may not hurt to install an oil pressure gauge.

 

[DOUNVME]

Yeah, I need to be looking for a dual gauge pod and an oil psi gauge. From you guys' experience with these cars, is elec. or mech. a better choice?

 

[Pronto]

Glad it's not too big of an issue. Your 02s should be jumping all around while driving. Those numbers at WOT and you'll have big problems.

 

[XLR8]

I would say a mechanical gauge is better, but I went electrical since it is much easier.