Dear god my car is eating itself

[LeftVentricle]

I know you've all been on the edge of your seat—I pulled the serpentine belt this morning and started it, and it still made the noise. I think we can eliminate anything on the accessory side of the engine as a potential cause.

[tractorman]

I have a couple ideas: The fact that the transmission was replaced fairly recently makes me suspicious. When I bring a truck or tractor into the shop with any sort of mysterious noise/symptom, I always try to confirm what work has been done on the machine recently. We mechanics are an unreliable bunch... we leave all kinds of shit loose.

First, are the bellhousing bolts all tight? If not, then you may have a broken flywheel- I've seen this a few times in other applications... loose bolts cause a misalignment... which flexes the flexplate... which breaks it. But the vehicle will often still run ok, making a hell of a racket at idle. When flexplates break due to this condition, they usually break out a rough circule close to the bolt pattern- so you wouldn't necessarily have seen it when you had the cover off.

Another idea I have is the drive chain in the transmission. I'm not really familiar enough with it to give any tips for eliminating it, but it seems like possibility to me.

Does the engine show signs of high blowby? What I'm hearing doesn't sound typical for a piston or bearing failure, but it isn't out of the question. The fact that there were no chunks in your oil lead me to believe that this isn't the case, though.

[LeftVentricle]

No blowby. I'll check the bellhousing bolts. As for the drive chain, wouldn't that interfere with driving it at all? I just drove it about 230 miles on Saturday without issue. I drive a lot—in the 2.5 years I've had it I've put over fifty thousand miles on it, and twelve thousand just since having the transmission put in in May.

Something I've omitted throughout this whole ordeal—that clicking sound in the most recent video has been present ever since the transmission was put in. Before the nonsense in the video, and since then, it only clicks on startup and while accelerating. I can only hear it in first and second. Third with or without lockup is quiet. Can't tell with fourth, since road noise covers it up by then. Cruising is normal. It goes away (or I'm tuning it out) after I drive it for a while.

[fordboy97f150]

flexplate 1000% sure

[Weatheralls Auto]

Not gunna have time to read whole thread lol, 3 pages enough.

Shittty laptop speakers, but I would say possibly waterpump if at front of engine, or if at rear a cracked flywheel?

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

hey fordboy, your signature is missing a few words to make sense, was your mouth full of cheese cake and your hands full of women? or were you just typing too fast?

[LeftVentricle]

Okay! The wagon is in the shop, and they've found out what that horrible sound was. It was... the flywheel.

Bolts.

Yes, three of the bolts holding the flywheel to the crank had backed out, and according to the mechanic, they are basically rods now—no threads on them at all. It probably didn't help that I've been driving the car in this state since... oh, mid-November or so. This of course presents a bit of a problem. Hopefully the threads on the crank aren't stripped out. I think I heard him mention "helicoil" as a distinct possibility.