so i finally got around to rebilding my distributer and it ran grate then i was "testing it " in 1st gear and i hit the rev limiter for 2 sec and then shifted to 2nd.. long story short i belive i have a knock in my motor now.. from the bottome end i have only driven the car about 5miles so far with the noise. so i thought it could be the bolts to the tc but i checked that and there all tight..i started the car with the flexplate cover off an the car jacked up and you could here the knock real bad....so i might have a craked flexplate but with all the miles its probly the motor 193 thousand..so now i must invest in a beater till i get my v8 bilt.

 

Are you sure the distributor hold-down-bolt wasn't tightened enough, and the timing didn't slip, causing detonation? Just a ray of hope... try checking the timing... otherwise, that sucks, dude...

 

well thats what i thought at first but i dont have a timeing light so i had to drive the car a ways today and it ran grate on the hiway and no noise. so when i got off the hiway the car did not make any noise at all idaling. so i shut it off and came back out to go and the car started to make the noise agin. when i installed the distributer i left the holdown bolt somewhat loose so i could ajust the timming and drive it. do you think that could be the problem? if so my tank is on empty so i will put the 93 fuel in it. that should tell me if it is detination right? help!

thanks chris

 

If it didn't knock on the highway yesterday than you definately didn't spin a bearing (that's not one of those mystery ailments that comes and goes from time to time). Maybe, though, you didn't spin the bearing..but it's knocking cause its worn. Try and listen down low on a cold start. Worn bearings tend to knock then, before the oil thins out and the metal expands and things pull just a little bit closer together. 93 octane should help the detonation some if your timings a little bit off...but if its wayyyyyyyyy off, you gotta fix that, not look for better gas to cure the problem.

 

i realize that it would not fix the problem but it will give me an idea if thats the problem. also what you just said about the noise on a cold starts is exactly what it is doing...

 

If it knocks on a cold start, at idle, then tends to die out when the engine is warm, its more likely to be a worn bearing or 2 then if it sounds ok at idle, but knocks (actually, it'll sound more like a rattle) under load, cold or hot, though often even more when its hot (that's detonation). And about the gas, what I meant was, even if it is just detonation, the higher octane is only gonna help if the timings is a few degrees off. If it's way off, even 93 won't cure it, so even if it still does it on a tank of 93 it won't neccessarily mean it's not detonation (does that make sense? lol)

 

Yeah, if you left the dist holddown bolt loose and went for a drive, the engine probably spun the distributor on it's own. 93 octane won't help if the timing is that far overadvanced. Might be time to buy a timing light, or, borrow one from a friend... the no-frills "basic" timing lights (which are all we need) are usually $30-$40...

 

well i looked agin and its the damm flexplate...craked all to hell...so i guss i have to pull the gd transmission out agin im so pissed i hate pulling the trans. thanks for the help

is a flexplate the same for a 2.8 as a 3.1?

 

Ya want one?
I'll send it to ya for the cost of shipping which could be about $8-9.
I have 3.
I have one boxed up now.
It's from my 1985 2.8.
When ya swap engines ya get left over parts.
I believe it'll be a perfect option.
My 3.4s needed the 3.4 flexplates that came with the engines.
Give a shout or send me an email.
Hope this helps.
I've tried to give these things away several times before I use them as clay pigeons at the end of a 12 guage.