new guys in need of all the help i can get. :(
05-28-2014, 03:35 PM
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new guys in need of all the help i can get. :( Hello guys, just intro myself at the intro page but once again real quick, name is Levon and im from MI. Just got this Camaro LS1 2weeks ago and it came w/a lot of headache.
NOTE:bellow the writing im including a video link for a video of a car and pretty much of me talking all of what i wrote here but in a video itself for those of you whod rather listen then read.
WARNING: This will be a long post since to get help i have to mention all i know, but ill try to organize all as much as i can, so please bare w/me. lol
Shes is: 01 Camaro Z28. She came to me with Vigilante Torque converter, ATP axle cover, 4;10gears, NOS set up (no bottle), SLP under-body support brace bars and possibly some more just haven't discovered them yet.
Ok here it goes:
Bought her from Craigslist. Add mentioned that she needs brake job done and some squicky pulley. Nothing was mentioned about all the extras she have, i found out about them from personal research of mine and my cousin. When i brought her home, turned out she REALLY BAADDLY needed rotors and pads at all 4. I also replaced transm fluid w/synth Valvoline and its filter. she was jacked up for few days as i was taking my time doing all this, but when first started she actually sputtered some and threw an P0300 code twice for multiple misfire detection. I have shut her of cleared code and restart hoping that it was a glitch and wont come back. After that drove her for a day and then start noticing some tick / knock. I contacted my cousin who have an 99 LS1, and was told by him that supposedly LS1s have piston tap or some at the start up, but mine wasnt going away. I newer heard of official certified knock, let alone on an LS1 upfront in person to know the difference, all i knew some was wrong.
this what i did:
First and foremost i raised her up and used stethoscope on the pan, block and heads, and it seam to me that the most noisiest place on her was driver side head the last piston that is closer to the driver.
1 checked for OIL pressure, gauge shows 45 at idle no shaking no dropping.
2 opened transm to engine inspection place and rotated the flywheel to check bolts for converter, (couldnt check flexplate and such, just converter bolts, and actual flywheel teeth)
3 Dropped Oil Filter (owner replaced oil before selling it to me so it was a bit suspicious but he didnt replace a filter as it was very dirty like rest of a car) cut it open and found no metal in it, not visually nor with a magnet. He said he put in Mobile 1 synthetic, seam like its synthetic as it very drippy from stick and really is new, so i didnt necessary dropped the oil out to check for things and went w/filter.
4 pulled out PCV and plugged vacuum gauge, started her up and she showed 18-19.5 erratically. shut her of went to take a **** came back on decided to do it once again and she showed 19-20 much more stable swipe. ??? Also while PCV being disconnected it developed some weird fast rattling noise which appeared that it was coming from the pcv, i didnt make nothing of it, figured once done testing ill just plug all back and be done w/that.
5 from vaccum test figured id better check into upper valve train and see if some is sticking, specially when stetoscope indicated most noise from head, figured maybe i found a problem. SO i opened the covers of visually inspect rockers/springs etc. ALL seamed to be looking normal. The only thing that seamed odd to me was that the Rockers had a side to side movement when wiggled by hand, which kinda sounded like maybe that noise i was hearing, but after spinning engine by hand and having those rockers go through the compression strokes they would tighten and movement would go away. ???
6 I then zip tied and hanged coil packs over the heads and started the engine up to see if visually theres no damages. engine was much louder w/out covers so i couldn't necessary distinguish any noise but rather just looked at valve train which seam to be working just fine, as all of the 8 cyl seam to operate in same fashion. ran it like that for about 3min.
NOTE: for the step 6 i have had the smog provision pipes removed and covered the holes w/metal shims, for the step 4 smog pipes were all intact but it was still making that rattling nose, which AGAIN i assumed _ well now exhaust is open so its ok. meaning that high rattle noise began to basically stalk me since vacuum test.
So when i put all back i put everything exactly way the car was including smog provisions (one of the provision tube gasket were missing as it was torn)and then started the car up once again only to find out that all hell broke loose. the Car began to sound as if you have a turbo diesel idling in garage and not an LS1. I got so upset that i was ready to catch the whole car on fire. The POS literally were making that huge tick/rattle noise as if its diesel. I needed some time to cool of and left it all like that in garage for 2days, after what i came back and torn out all of smog provision tubes, plugged a vacuum tube that goes into a Valve for smog pipes w/screw and cut out metal plates to cover the exhaust ports. went bought some exhaust gasket material and sandwich it in btween. Started the car up and what do i know - she seamed to calmed down w/that rattle which at this point was only present the most loudly from only right side of her, to be specific when you get your ear near the tire. But most importantly i can still hear the original tick, knock, and now on top of this **** i also hear this crazy rattle thing on side (though not as crazy as first time). Since that day ive maybe put 50miles on her, and in that 50 miles she actually did sputter and threw P0300 code, almost daily. I keep deleting it and running and it keep coming back. always almost unnoticeable untill yesterday when was going 40miles and really felt her struggle w/misfire for few after what its got better.
CONCLUSION: If you are still with me and still reading this, id like to first say a BIG THANK YOU for sticking around as im sure you probably have something to say, or why would you stick here reading all this for nothing?
I do appreciate all the help because at this point i am pretty helpless. I am driving the car 5min a day or so because deep inside me im afraid its bottom end of it and that im doing more damage. ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED.
THANK YOU!!!!
NOTE:bellow the writing im including a video link for a video of a car and pretty much of me talking all of what i wrote here but in a video itself for those of you whod rather listen then read.
WARNING: This will be a long post since to get help i have to mention all i know, but ill try to organize all as much as i can, so please bare w/me. lol
Shes is: 01 Camaro Z28. She came to me with Vigilante Torque converter, ATP axle cover, 4;10gears, NOS set up (no bottle), SLP under-body support brace bars and possibly some more just haven't discovered them yet.
Ok here it goes:
Bought her from Craigslist. Add mentioned that she needs brake job done and some squicky pulley. Nothing was mentioned about all the extras she have, i found out about them from personal research of mine and my cousin. When i brought her home, turned out she REALLY BAADDLY needed rotors and pads at all 4. I also replaced transm fluid w/synth Valvoline and its filter. she was jacked up for few days as i was taking my time doing all this, but when first started she actually sputtered some and threw an P0300 code twice for multiple misfire detection. I have shut her of cleared code and restart hoping that it was a glitch and wont come back. After that drove her for a day and then start noticing some tick / knock. I contacted my cousin who have an 99 LS1, and was told by him that supposedly LS1s have piston tap or some at the start up, but mine wasnt going away. I newer heard of official certified knock, let alone on an LS1 upfront in person to know the difference, all i knew some was wrong.
this what i did:
First and foremost i raised her up and used stethoscope on the pan, block and heads, and it seam to me that the most noisiest place on her was driver side head the last piston that is closer to the driver.
1 checked for OIL pressure, gauge shows 45 at idle no shaking no dropping.
2 opened transm to engine inspection place and rotated the flywheel to check bolts for converter, (couldnt check flexplate and such, just converter bolts, and actual flywheel teeth)
3 Dropped Oil Filter (owner replaced oil before selling it to me so it was a bit suspicious but he didnt replace a filter as it was very dirty like rest of a car) cut it open and found no metal in it, not visually nor with a magnet. He said he put in Mobile 1 synthetic, seam like its synthetic as it very drippy from stick and really is new, so i didnt necessary dropped the oil out to check for things and went w/filter.
4 pulled out PCV and plugged vacuum gauge, started her up and she showed 18-19.5 erratically. shut her of went to take a **** came back on decided to do it once again and she showed 19-20 much more stable swipe. ??? Also while PCV being disconnected it developed some weird fast rattling noise which appeared that it was coming from the pcv, i didnt make nothing of it, figured once done testing ill just plug all back and be done w/that.
5 from vaccum test figured id better check into upper valve train and see if some is sticking, specially when stetoscope indicated most noise from head, figured maybe i found a problem. SO i opened the covers of visually inspect rockers/springs etc. ALL seamed to be looking normal. The only thing that seamed odd to me was that the Rockers had a side to side movement when wiggled by hand, which kinda sounded like maybe that noise i was hearing, but after spinning engine by hand and having those rockers go through the compression strokes they would tighten and movement would go away. ???
6 I then zip tied and hanged coil packs over the heads and started the engine up to see if visually theres no damages. engine was much louder w/out covers so i couldn't necessary distinguish any noise but rather just looked at valve train which seam to be working just fine, as all of the 8 cyl seam to operate in same fashion. ran it like that for about 3min.
NOTE: for the step 6 i have had the smog provision pipes removed and covered the holes w/metal shims, for the step 4 smog pipes were all intact but it was still making that rattling nose, which AGAIN i assumed _ well now exhaust is open so its ok. meaning that high rattle noise began to basically stalk me since vacuum test.
So when i put all back i put everything exactly way the car was including smog provisions (one of the provision tube gasket were missing as it was torn)and then started the car up once again only to find out that all hell broke loose. the Car began to sound as if you have a turbo diesel idling in garage and not an LS1. I got so upset that i was ready to catch the whole car on fire. The POS literally were making that huge tick/rattle noise as if its diesel. I needed some time to cool of and left it all like that in garage for 2days, after what i came back and torn out all of smog provision tubes, plugged a vacuum tube that goes into a Valve for smog pipes w/screw and cut out metal plates to cover the exhaust ports. went bought some exhaust gasket material and sandwich it in btween. Started the car up and what do i know - she seamed to calmed down w/that rattle which at this point was only present the most loudly from only right side of her, to be specific when you get your ear near the tire. But most importantly i can still hear the original tick, knock, and now on top of this **** i also hear this crazy rattle thing on side (though not as crazy as first time). Since that day ive maybe put 50miles on her, and in that 50 miles she actually did sputter and threw P0300 code, almost daily. I keep deleting it and running and it keep coming back. always almost unnoticeable untill yesterday when was going 40miles and really felt her struggle w/misfire for few after what its got better.
CONCLUSION: If you are still with me and still reading this, id like to first say a BIG THANK YOU for sticking around as im sure you probably have something to say, or why would you stick here reading all this for nothing?
I do appreciate all the help because at this point i am pretty helpless. I am driving the car 5min a day or so because deep inside me im afraid its bottom end of it and that im doing more damage. ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED. THANK YOU!!!!
05-29-2014, 09:34 AM
#6
Man you're going way over board on this I feel. The engine sounds just like 9/10 ls1's I've ever heard. Maybe a small exhaust leak but that engine noise is normal. What you found in the oil is completely normal for an engine as any engine wears tiny particles come off parts and find themselves on the magnet. That"fuzz" like material is just that and nothing to be concerned about. I saw no big chunks of metal which is what you'd see with a rod bearing. I've listened to more ls1's than I count and the only ones that I have ever heard that didnt make much if any oise at all were two 98 cars, other than that they all sounded like this some went away when warm some didnt.
For reference this is an ls1 with a failed rod bearing
For reference this is an ls1 with a failed rod bearing
05-29-2014, 11:17 AM
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Hey man, thank you for the reply and obviously for the beacon of hope! Like I said above I never heard official knock up in person so I was and still am upset. None of my cars in passed made anything like this. We have 6cars in fam, I actually been under each listening to it for me to see the difference and Camaro do sound like junk in comparasent. As far as vids on YouTube goes, I've seen all 140 or so w supposedly LS knocks but that's youtube and wasn't in person though yes some are very obvious. Mine is shady. You're saying it's all normal actually made me wipe of some sweat of my head but I'm still sweating lol. I do appreciate your input, I'm taking that you did took your time and went through my post, because I know even though I wrote a lot, I had to, since I had to explain all that's happening and all that I've checked. As you can see people above you wanted shorter version but I simply couldn't make one, I suppose I could come here and say "I think I got knock" and all start telling me what to do but would turn out I've already done those.
How positive are you in terms of 9/10? After all my pressure is at 45 or so stable, and I wonder if an engine w bad bottom end can retain such amazing stable oil pressure?
Thanks again
How positive are you in terms of 9/10? After all my pressure is at 45 or so stable, and I wonder if an engine w bad bottom end can retain such amazing stable oil pressure?
Thanks again
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05-29-2014, 11:21 AM
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On side note, assuming magically (to me atkeast) engine is ok, what's up w constant misfires at random cyl and now number 1? Cam sensor? MAF? Crank sensor? Coils? What should I look for. Sometimes missfire so pronounced where it shoots of the back and stumbles.
Thanks again
Thanks again
05-29-2014, 04:25 PM
#9
I have seen motors with bad bearing hold up steady oil psi but usually not. As far as the misfires go, they could be many things my first thing would be to clean the maf and swap the coil to another cylinder and see if it follows. The sound under the car to me sounds very similar to an exhaust leak but given the missfire. It wouldnt hurt to pull the valve covers and check all the springs and pushrods/rockers.
get a good scan tool and monitor the parameters. I am pretty positive that motor sounds fine bearing wise I have heard many in person and if there was a bearing issue you would see it in the oil. It would sparkle and have material on the plug. The missfire can be indicative of another issue but it wont be cause by a bad bearing.
PS. you may get better responses from this thread by putting in the GEN III internal section
get a good scan tool and monitor the parameters. I am pretty positive that motor sounds fine bearing wise I have heard many in person and if there was a bearing issue you would see it in the oil. It would sparkle and have material on the plug. The missfire can be indicative of another issue but it wont be cause by a bad bearing.
PS. you may get better responses from this thread by putting in the GEN III internal section
05-29-2014, 04:48 PM
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I have seen motors with bad bearing hold up steady oil psi but usually not. As far as the misfires go, they could be many things my first thing would be to clean the maf and swap the coil to another cylinder and see if it follows. The sound under the car to me sounds very similar to an exhaust leak but given the missfire. It wouldnt hurt to pull the valve covers and check all the springs and pushrods/rockers.
get a good scan tool and monitor the parameters. I am pretty positive that motor sounds fine bearing wise I have heard many in person and if there was a bearing issue you would see it in the oil. It would sparkle and have material on the plug. The missfire can be indicative of another issue but it wont be cause by a bad bearing.
PS. you may get better responses from this thread by putting in the GEN III internal section
get a good scan tool and monitor the parameters. I am pretty positive that motor sounds fine bearing wise I have heard many in person and if there was a bearing issue you would see it in the oil. It would sparkle and have material on the plug. The missfire can be indicative of another issue but it wont be cause by a bad bearing.
PS. you may get better responses from this thread by putting in the GEN III internal section
Ps: I don't know how to move this to gen3
06-17-2014, 05:58 PM
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I just wanted to come back and say this here, or in other words let some of my thoughs out after few weeks of this post being posted. I am amazed how no one but one person actually stoped by and chipped in. I am pretty sure many of members of this forum saw my post, and no one but one person replied. I originally was invited (suggested) this forum by a person who said, its a best place to ask for help when comes down to LS1. Boy was he wrong! i mean i understand that there might be or atleast i hope should be many of memebers here who know these cars blindfolded, but suppose none of them saw my add. or maybe its just that this forum is nothing but a place to ask much less complicated questions, some like "hey whats the torque spec for a intake manifold bolts" or "anyone know how to replace a fuel filter"?. this really sucks so thank you all who could chip in and help and didnt lol
lol