gavmeister

I have installed new summit racing headers with taking off all the air tubes and just leaving the smog pump running open to the air on my 89 formula 350 and there is now what seems to be a rod knock. I am completely at loss what to do. These are the following things I have tried
1. drain the oil to check for no metal shavings
2. Making sure the headers and y-pipe aren't vibrating anything
3. did the best that i can to adjust the roller rockers
4. unplug each spark plug wire at a time to see if the sound went away
I am completely lost right now and scared I have a rod knock or something please help!!

maroe624

First thing you might wanna adjust those rockers again.

gavmeister

I just did that today with checking if any pushrods were bent. i also replaced the header gasket and that did not solve the problem. Though i discovered when i pull out the out the passenger side injectors while running the sound the engine is making changes but when i do the same thing on the drivers side nothing happens to the sound of the engine

LastThirdgen

Did the noise go away or change when you removed the spark plug wires one at a time?

gavmeister

I did that last night sorry i forgot to mention that in my post

PaulyC

Did this start immediately after you installed the headers? If so odds are its something related to that. Next are we talking about a tick a click a dull knock? If you are thinking your valve train or an exhaust leak are the cause i assume its more of a tick or click and that would probably not be a rod.
Can you record it and post the noise?

OrangeBird

iTrader: (1)

I believe what your hearing is the unrestricted output of air from the smog pump . The output of the smog pump is not a constant pressure without "back pressure" (the rest of the air injection system) and will exhibit a "pop pop pop" type of sound with no load (restriction) on the pump's output .

Take the belt off of your smog pump and see if the "Knocking" sound disappears ......

gavmeister

OrangeBird

iTrader: (1)

Your only gonna run it for a minute (with the engine stone cold) , like literally 60 seconds , with the belt off , which is not long enough to hurt anything . If the noise is gone without the belt running the pump your two options would be to get a shorter belt and bypass the smog pump's pulley , of if that's not possible you'll have to get a smog pump "delete pulley" and install that in place of the smog pump .

gavmeister

i tried to run the car without the smog pump and the knock persisted and i have also tried checking the timing and the timing is completely out of wack and while i was checking the timing the drivers side header starting smoking like crazy with a burnt like smell. Now the thing is i replaced the passenger side header because it was smoking and when i installed the new gasket it stopped smoking so tomorrow i am going to install the other gasket and see what happens. i also wasnt able to put the last bolt in closest to the passenger side in the rear of the engine because the there was not enough clearance but i don't think that that will create the knocking noise that is happening. Sorry for the long post and sorry for not posting a video of the sound i am hearing i will try to post a video tomorrow.

Abubaca

iTrader: (3)

I had an exhaust/header leak, and you'd be amazed how NOT exhaust sounding it is. Definitely made a tick tick tick noise.