fuzzi

Hey everyone, i wos wondering if anyone had any input to a problem im having. Ive had my 2nd gen for about 5.5 years, i bought it with a blown engine and me and my buddy rebuilt it, and ported it etc. Ive had a problem the last couple weeks. My car was making some noise that i thought was coming from the transmission. The noise started as almost like a slow knocking through the shifter, and whenever i lifted up the clutch after gearing down, it would make almost a metal on metal sound, like a slipping belt but worse. This went on for a while and the knocking after about a week and abit started to get louder, then finally one day it made a big sound like a cracking noise almost and the knocking sound was crazy from the tranny. I tried to get as far as i could, but after my car stalled it, my battery didnt have enough juice to start it. I took it home, and assuming that i had messed my tranny, my buddy had another s4 tranny with new syncros and everything in his garage, so we swapped it. Before we started the swap my buddy started my car up and it started fine. We switched the tranny and while in there i replaced the clutch disc, and put redline in the new tranny. I should add that my clutch slave went a week before this and i replaced it and it seemed to fix the problem, but the noise was still there. Anyhow finally we got the job done, and i couldnt get my car started, assuming i flooded it i pulled the fuse and the plugs, nothing worked. I dried of the plugs, tried using a battery jumper etc.. no luck... I took the battery today out of another car we have, and third try the car starts up. It doesnt really smoke, just the normal little puff when it starts up, and it holds a perfect idle, but its a little slow to rev, and i still get the excessive vibration through the clutch pedal, and the tranny. The car does not overheat, I have oil pressure, and oil in the oil pan. Other than the lawnmower like sound i cant figure out whats wrong, i replaced my plugs, and that didnt seem to fix anything. Anyone have any ideas?? I have my buddy coming out with a compression tester tomorrow. SInce it came on so gradually i dont think its a blown engine. It sounds almost normal when idleing, when i rev it up it sounds like ***..
any help is greatly appreciated.

SureShot

It sounds like a bad mis-fire on one rotor.

Start with the easy stuff.
How old are the plug wires?

If not, then move on to look for a clogged or stuck injector.

fuzzi

thanks man, that sounds good ill give it a try and post my results

fuzzi

So the results of the compression test are as follows. The rear rotor 12 approx 110 whereis the front is at 100. Three equal hits. By the looks of this the engine is not blown. I am able to start it easier now, but i still have the severe noise happening. So we checked some other things.. one of my spark plug wires wasnt on right we got that on, no real difference. Then we inspected the lower pulley to check the play. It had more play than we would like so we removed the fan, and the bolt that controls the play (the one with the spring on the end) was loose! This is supposed to be at 300 foot pounds or so. We removed it cleaned everything put it on with lock tight, as tight as possible. The car seems to rev a little quicker, but the noise and shaking is still present. It almost sounds like it has an exhaust leak too. I was wondering if that bolt is loose what else can go ?
Could it be the front bearing on the engine that is gone? meaning a rebuild.
Also how do i check the injectors. I dont know what else to do, this car is my baby.

fuzzi

bump

Funkspectrum

iTrader: (5)

forewarning, don't bump....

mods don't like the bumping.

As far as the noise is concerned, did you replace your pilot bearing or throwout bearing at all?

It sounds like it could be related to the clutch assembly in some way.

SureShot

When you say play at the pulley, are you referring to e-shaft end play?
That should be pretty tight at .002-.003".
The end play is contolled by the length of the spacer collar between the thrust (torrington) bearings.

The front e-shaft bolt torque should be around 75 ft-lbs.
Of course it takes more than that to loosen it because of the loc-tite on the threads.

Did you hold pressure on the clutch while the bolt was off?
If not the thrust bearings can fall out of alignment & get pinched on reassembly.

Sorry about the confusion.
I'm not sure we're talking about the same things.

fuzzi

yah we did that apon re-assembling the bolt. I actually have another guy in town here too, an rx7 guru looking at it, and he says he has seen nothing like it before. In regards to the previous question, we replaced the tranny, the clutch, the throw out bearing, and the pilot bearing. If it is related we replaced the clutch slave two weeks before, because it went.

p.s. sorry for the bump i didnt know the protocol