Like always I will give my best description of the issue at hand.

Car: 2003 Evo GSR - 20G Buscher turbo, built polished port head, springs, valves etc. Intake manifold ported, full 3" buscher exhaust, JM Fab 1000 HP FMIC, Injen IC piping, running MAf still, walbro 255 + 12V mod kit STM, etc. Car is tuned to about 400-450 HP.

So I bought the car awhile back and I have always had this "Ticking rattling noise, at 2750-3800 RPMS. I am not sure if the noise goes beyond this only because road speed, engine noise prevents me from hearing the noise. Anyhow I have been trying to diagnosis the noise and I have had little success finding the culprit. The engine must have (load) I usually use about 12-17 throttle to hear it, no WOT, or anything like that as the exhaust and turbo drone the noise out.

Tonight I decided to do the vendible.. think about the bottom end having an issue , but being realistic is more of my forte then trying to convince myself it is a intake manifold issue. The noise is very difficult to replicate while the car is not moving, i.e working on the car in the garage and pressing the throttle on the throttle body.


I pulled cylinder #1 - Closest to the crank spark plug wire and tried to replicate the noise, it was completely gone. I wanted to make sure it was not me "hoping" and retested my theory, and again the noise would only work while the spark plug wire was in, and when removed the noise was gone.

Would I be wrong to say it could be the #1 rod bearing slowly diminishing?

If I pulled the oil pan, would there be a safe effective way of checking this without removing the rod cap, or is this a solid recommendation I should pursue?

Thank you in advance everyone!

 

Any metal in the oil?

 

See if you can take a video while driving and post it up. The camera might be able to pick up the sound.

 

Sadly already tried to get sound while driving.. >,<! I'm taking the pan off tonight, checking oil and rod bearings.

 

Check if any metal is hiding in the recesses of he pan.

 

Well I took off the oil pan, and baffle, I basically couldn't move the rod cap at all, very tight. Decided to take a chance, because I really felt it was cylinder #1, I even removed the spark plug wire from the cylinder and was not able to replicate the noise, it went away, so here are the results.




Image #1 is the bottom half of the rod bearing, and image #2 is the top half, as you can, this is the beginning stages of rod knock. I am happy I caught it in the early stages where the noise was not very noticeable. Glad it was found.

 

Nice troubleshooting bud!

 

Good catch. Look at the journal to make sure it's not damaged

 

yeah how is the crankshaft looking? most of the time you can have it cleaned up and use an oversized bearings. your rod should still be ok. r u considering a cheap build? new pistions,rings, bearings, and arp head and rod bolts? let us know what u do to fix. any good catch champion. didn't wait for something very bad to happen.

 

Crankshaft by visual inspection seems it will be able to be used again, If I take a finger nail I can even feel any of the small area's that look like a groove, which is good. Again, until it is measured and looked at, I can't say much.

As for the build, I am not sure yet what I want to do. I could build the bottom end for more power, do a complete OEM rebuild, or do a slight build. Knowing me I will save a little bit and get a build, but it won't be crazy, just something that can hold 600-700 AWHP.

THose numbers ^ are future plans, and not currently going to happen for 2-3 years. I think it would be nice knowing the power levels can increase without bottom end destruction.

 

Dang

 

Sounds good. I get this intermittent non-rythmic tick noise on start up after the RPM's drop and it idles. It does sound like CYL 1 too

 

Any update?

 

Good catch mine was doing the same, some trash had gotten in the #3 cylinder and gouged the #3 main and rod bearing... still ran for 3 years afterwards LOL...