Here is the latest on my project. I have had a bit of an oil leak since all the upgrades. It appears that when I loosened the pan and lowered the front of it to allow room for the timing cover to slide back in. The oil pan seal did not make a good seal. As a result oil has been leaking out from around the gasket. Last night I took it out to the dealership and put it up on a lift and started ripping and tearing. After about 1 hr I was to the point of were the pan was loose but it would not come down out. I tried wiggling, twisting, and pulling. Nothing, including combinations of the before mentioned. Finally I got pissed and we took out the drivers side motor mount to jack the engine up a bit. After about 1 hr of pissing around with that, and turning the engine over to get the crank to the best position, and removing the one frame brace, the pan finally came out. I cleaned all the oil and inspected the surfaces and prepared the new gasket with gasket sealer. Again getting the pan back in was a treat. All went back together ok and tightened all of it down. I have no idea how you guys could ever do this job, with just the car jacked up! I would definately loose my temper at least 100x more than last night. :yesnod: Here is the part that bothered me.
While under there I noticed that the motor mount on the passengers side was missing the bottom bolt that goes throught the motor mount and into the block. Upon further looking one of the top bolts was missing too! :crazy: Only one bolt was in that mount! :eek: Perhaps that is some of my false knock! I then noticed that the freakin long horizonal motor mount bolt is hitting my one header pipe. It appears to be hitting when the engine rocks. This most definately is causing some knock because it is about 3-4" away from the knock sensor. Moreover it is almost rubbed right through! I was really POed about that. I opted to leave the car there and work on it tomorrow night. I am going to have to pull that bolt out and cut some of it off. Man I hope that does not develope into a hole or already is one. I think I would have been able hear it though, if it was a hole.
Well I am hoping if I have to go through all this trouble to get the bolt out and cut it off that it was part of the small knock counts I was getting. Perhaps you others with Hookers should investigateto see if they have a hole (boy that did not sound good! :lol: ). I thought mine were free and clear will now. I will also replace the bolts that are missing from the motor mounts. They should be a riot getting at. I will let you all know how it goes.





[Modified by ski_dwn_it, 7:08 PM 3/20/2002]

 

Sounds Like fun!! ;)

When I pulled the engine in the '89, I found that The passenger side motor mount had no bolts holding the mount to the engine!!! :eek:

 

Why don't you mig weld a patch of steel over the rub mark to make sure it won't leak in the future? If you leave the rub mark alone, it will most certainly develope a hole in it once rust sets in. Hell, the car is already up on the lift and it sounds like you have the space to work on that section of the headers. Weld that patch in there and finish the job so won't have to deal with it again. That's what I would do, not to mention triming the the bolt that was touching the headers.

 

Yeah I probably should, but I am no welder! I will inspect to see how bad the rub is once the bolt is out of the way.

 

Depending on the clearence with the shortened bolt, a few light taps with a hammer on the header tube wouldn't hurt. Not an ideal situation, but not uncommon with many header installations. Also, a great weld isn't necessary. You don't need any real strength here, just some armor. Didn't you just get through installing this engine? Or did the short block stay in the car? Good luck.

 

CFI-EFI,
I kept the lower half of the engine in the car while doing the work.

 

Understood.

The long motor mount bolt AND the missing mount to block bolts very well could have caused the knock counts on your read out. I don't think the "noise" even has to be that close, physically, to the knock sensor to be picked up. I was getting knock indicators with a diagnostic machine, so I did a test. I purged my gas tank and filled it with the highest octane gas available. I retarded the timing to 0* (spec 6* btdc) and revved it in neutral. No way a stock 9:1 engine should knock under those conditions. I still got the same number of counts. My timing was being retarded by the ESC for no valid reason. I hope you've found the ONLY source of your counts.