harmonic balancer???

[hypedz34]

ok after i changed all the gaskets like intake vaves and all those gaskets and put it back together correctly,i raced after and now it wont go past 3000 rpm and theirs a rattling sound comin from under or around the power steering area on the left side of the motor if you are standing in front of the car.what could it be if itz not the harmonic balancer and how could you tell if the harmonic balancer is going out?car runs but shuts off occasionally.it is a chevrolet lumina z34.any help is appreciated

[pmaniac69]

depends on what motor you have

sound like timing belt/chain slippage/jumpage to me

[pocket-rocket]

depends on what motor you have

sound like timing belt/chain slippage/jumpage to me

Well since it's a Z34, and this is in the DOHC section, I think it's safe to assume it's a 3.4 DOHC, lol.

Did you change your idlers/tensioner pulley when you did your belt? Did you make sure you torqued all your hardware that deals with the belt down correctly? I would pop your acc. belt off, timing belt covers (including the side one behind the acc belt), fire it up, and watch it to see what it could be. A harmonic balancer would be one of the last things I would be looking at right now. Besides, it's not going to limit your rpms like you are experiencing, but cam timing being off could.

[hypedz34]

well i didnt mess with any belts or pulleys or anything like that.just changed the valve cover gaskets and intake gaskets and thats all.its tapping loudly and if i drive it it takes me forever to get to speed limit.also it shuts off when i stop sometimes.but i did not mess with belts or pullys or none of that

[pmaniac69]

Well since it's a Z34, and this is in the DOHC section, I think it's safe to assume it's a 3.4 DOHC, lol.

ya, I thought about that last night when I went to bed lol, all well

[hypedz34]

well my teacher diagnosed it and said it was a rod bearing.so im screwed as usual and my b day is tomorow happy freakin b day.any help on what direction i can go from here would be greatly appreciated

[Firehawk94]

Well that explains the rattling, but it doesnt explain why it wont rev past 3 grand. It sucks that your bottom end is knocking especially around your bday. (Happy Birthday by the way!!) Maybe you could get by with just pulling the pan and changing the bearings?? Just a thought! Ive seen it done before, granted it is kinda half assing it, but if you dont knock your crank or rods out of round you may get by with just changing the bearings. This was performed on an 89 Celica and it shut the knock up and to this day it is still running good.

[hypedz34]

thnx,people keep telling me to remove the oil pan to fix the rod bearing.its just that one i dunno wich one its coming from and also the crank could be chewed up also.not to shure how i would go about this now

[walterdude]

The rod bearings would all be done at the same time, they come as a complete set and are CHEAP!! AND easy to do... The main problem is getting the oil-pan off. Don't know if you can just lift the motor off the motor mounts or not.. The motor probably has to come all the way out. Or maybe you could suspend the motor and drop the cradle. Whenever the motor has been out of my car (93 Z34) I've dropped everything on the cradle and worked from there.
Someone else will probably be able to tell you more. It's probably going to be a bit of work, but, won't cost too much....
Good luck,,,
Tom...
PS: Happy B-Day!!!

[hypedz34]

thanx,my teacher said that it may be more damage than just the bearings i have the money for the bearings its nothing its just figuring out if imma take out the engine or go through the oil pan.

[Firehawk94]

thanx,my teacher said that it may be more damage than just the bearings i have the money for the bearings its nothing its just figuring out if imma take out the engine or go through the oil pan.

Having more damage is quite possible because the chewed up bearing and/or bearings send metal flakes all through your engine, but it really depends on how damaged the bearings are so maybe (keep your fingers crossed) you could get by with just changing the bearings. Pull the pan off and see if you have shiny metal flakes floating in the oil or at the bottom of the pan. If it looks like, for instance, you filled a pepper shaker full of metal flakes and just sprinkled it all in your pan then you might as well rebuild that engine because the flakes will act as shrapnel/sandpaper on every moving part inside your engine.

Chances are though (depending on how long you have driven the car with a knock) you may be ok. Gotta keep ya head up!!

[walterdude]

Well, ya gotta pull the oil-pan to get at the bottom end of the engine.. Thing I was saying is probably the engine has to come out in order to even get at the oil-pan. Possibly you could run a 4x4 across the fenders and use that to support the engine/trans. Then maybe you could drop the cradle and gain access to the oil-pan that way. It actually doesn't sound too bad!!! Otherwise I'm pretty sure you CAN'T get the pan out without doing something...
Hopefully more offer suggestions,,,
Tom...
I'd take a look-see at what the oil/filter looks like. If there is metal you can get a real good idea of what did fail.. If you didn't drive the car after you noticed the noise you could get some more miles out of it... It's worth it to at least find out what failed...

[pocket-rocket]

ok after i changed all the gaskets like intake vaves and all those gaskets and put it back together correctly

This is why I thought you had it farther apart then I thought.

ya, I thought about that last night when I went to bed lol, all well

I was just ribbing you, man

Having more damage is quite possible because the chewed up bearing and/or bearings send metal flakes all through your engine,

I bet the filter caught most of it, if it really is a bearing.

Possibly you could run a 4x4 across the fenders and use that to support the engine/trans. Then maybe you could drop the cradle and gain access to the oil-pan that way.

Before I had an engine hoist or engine support bar ($60 at harbor freight), this is exactly how I used to support my engine to change transmissions.

If you haven't been driving the car and only ran it a few short minutes after hearing the problem, I doubt you have anything to worry about as long as you change bearings NOW. If you drove it for a week like that, your goose has been burnt, and instead of bearings, go buy a reman'd crank. They come with the right size bearings after being machined down.

[savannaz34]

i seriously think you dropped something into the the cam carrier when you changed the valve cover gasket.it just seems very strange that it happens right after you changed them.i apolagize,i went back and read the first couple of posts,i have come to the conclusion that something was dropped into the intake,and it is either in the head still,or it made it past the valve,and is sitting on top of the piston.and the reason you cant rev the motor very high or get up to speed is because the it is detecting a knock and is constantly adjusting the spark advance to get rid of the knock.even if im wrong,is your check engine light even coming on?

[hypedz34]

the day i got everything back together and started it the engine light did come on.but everything was running fine at the moment.and we could not figure out wat waz the reason why the light was coming off.the engine is now out of the car.and im in the process of seperating the transmission from the engine now.when the car started making the noise i drove it home and did not drive it again till i had to drive it to the shop.i drove extremely carefully (a lot of honking and get out the way if i may add)to the shop parked it and then began taking the engine out.the noise it was making beore engine removal was not hellacious.so hopefully not any crank damage??