So I recently swapped a 350 into my 85 trans am and put my TPI fuel injetion on it. It had ran alright but the engine had a miss that I was trying to work out. I found out that this engine was missing a knock sensor, so today I put in a new knock sensor and fuel filter.

The problem is I was really stupid in jacking the car and picked a poor point to jack from and my jack slipped and put a small dent in the oil pan on the front side of the block , I re-jacked the car after that and finished what I was doing.

When I went to fire the car up after I was done there is now a horrible engine knock.

I was wondering the clearence from the oil pan to the internals, could I have dented the pan in too far and now it is banging?? I would say the dent is at max about a half inch, probably less, but it was hard to tell from under my car how bad it was.

The only other alternative I could think of is it's a serious case of detonation although I don't see how that could have happened from changing the KS and fuel filter.

I am worried now that if it did dent in and is banging could I have seriously damaged my engine internals?

 

here are pics of my oil pan, and a video of it running.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-MunUFyMxI

I'm thinking it must be the crankshaft banging off the pan. Would this likely have done internal damage? how easy is it to swap the pan without pulling the engine?

any advice would be great thanks.

 

shouldnt be enought to cause all that ruckaus mine has a desent dent in the oil pan but doesnt make any noise ,bu.t if you belive its the pan
oil pan removal
1.disconnect neg battary cable
2.remove fan shroud
3.remove air cleaner
4.remove dist. cap
5.raise car
6.drain crankcase
7.disconnect exhaust pipes at manifold
8.disconnect AIR pipe clamp
9.disconnect converter hang down bolts
10.remove front starter brace
11.remove starter bolts let starter hang
12.(skip if automatic)remove oil filter
13.remove inspection cover(for flywheel)
14.remove motor mount bolts
15.remove oil pan bolts
16.raise engine
17.rotate crank to position that throws dont block pan removal
18.remove oil pan
to install use (1 piece gasket)oil resistant rtv in corners and front and back,revurse procedures

(derived form 1987 chevrolet camaro shop manual

 

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but that dosnt sound like the crank hitting the pan nor a bad detonation. It it was hitting the pan you would be able to see the pan moving and you could feel it clearly if you touched the pan. Detonation sounds like a pinging. That sounds like your bottom end is in serious trouble. Is it a used motor or a fresh rebuild?

 

It's a used engine that we rebuilt before putting back in. I had it running for a while after the swap and there was definatly no indication of anything wrong in the bottom end. As i said there was just a slight miss I was trying to fix.

Before I hit the oil pan with the jack it sounded fine. Could I have really done serious damage to the bottom end when I dented the pan?

Either way I bought a new oil pan and i'm planning on putting it on tommorow. I guess I'll find out then.

thanks for the replys

 

Any chance the jack bounced from the oil pan and into the harmonic balancer?

If so...possible crankshaft issues.

 

instrested to see what you found out there was it the oil pan. My guess would be oil pan. Or the rare case of just bad luck cause it wasnt making the noise before. There isnt alot of clearance between oil pan and crank.

 

Well, I changed the oil pan out today and that was definatly the problem. Sound is gone

Although I am having a different noise now that may have been happening before but I didn't notice it until now. It sems to be coming from the flywheel/tc area. Video here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylbDWbQaFrA

I got in my car after and put it into neutral, when I did this the sound went away. After that when I put it into park again it was still there but nowhere near what it is in the video.

What could cause this noise?

 

maybe bad kick down cable or mis ajusted

 

check your torque convertor to flexplate bolts.

 

Doesn't sound right, but maybe exhaust leak? Also seems to be idling pretty high.

 

The flexplate/torque converter both have a slight wobble while it's running, and when I checked the bolts one of them was pretty loose. Maybe the flexplate warped or cracked because of the loose bolt??

Think tommorow I will unbolt the TC and push it back and see what happens when I start it up, should tell me if its the flexplate or TC