So for the past few months, my LQ4 swapped TA has been clattering away on bank 1. Stethoscope felt loudest cyl near #5 and even cold you could feel it like it was hitting the scope when placed on the rail. I checked and changed the oil pump Oring a few months ago. No Joy. No oil weights changed anything,, so I bought a borescope and pulled plug #1 to find calcified oil all over it.


Scratches are from me wandering in there with no light on the scope (doh) Piston was coated in oil, and being cleaned. Presumably by a bad plug not firing completely and fuel.
Cyl 3


So decided to run a compression check (cold) on that side and nothing stood out.
1 - 175
3 - 176
5 - 177
7 - 174

Checked the oil and it was low, accidently went over the fill mark but since I run that much when I ran high speed autocross I figured ok, still noisy. So I started pulling pulling parts and checking one by one, resolving to the fact I wanted to upgrade heads anyways, so now is a good time.

1. Catch can had about a quarter cup from about 400 miles of driving, intake was saturated and #1 intake valve had a shiny layer of oil on it at the top.
2. Found the rocker trunion on #5 exhaust had a little more play than others and a nick that would allow travel more than the others as well.

Pulled the head off and saw this:

Cyl #1 top



No coolant loss, no smoking other than startup or cold days. No misfires or codes. Bank 2 looked good, all lifters are fine, cam is good. Any ideas on why #1 looks like that? All the other cylinders on that bank seem to be getting cleaner since I scoped it a few weeks ago too?? Maybe the oil being burned is throwing that O2 off and over fueling?
I don't want to put a ported set of heads on a sketchy bottom end, but nothing I am seeing other than the really clean piston jumps out as a problem. My hope is that it is from the cyl just not firing right and cleaned with fuel and oil now that it is burning somewhat right. I did also put techron in the tank right before all this started and ran chemtool in the oil before last oil change. The car sees maybe 100 miles a month, hoping to change that once I get rid of that clacking.

 

I would do a trunnion bushing upgrade job on it with either the Straub kit or CHE's kit.

 

Yea, was thinking of just getting the Kit from WS6store that comes with the new rockers. Haven't see anyone using them though. Going to take the heads up to TSP for some lovin.

 

WS6store will do you right. Keep us in the loop!

 

How much oil is this engine using? How loose is that 1st piston in the bore? Sure looks like a loose noisy piston oiling down the cylinder to me.

 

 

I'd say about a quart every 1k, hard to say exact per mile because the car sits and when it did get out, it was hard. I changed the oil so frequently I never really measured but most seems to end up in the catch can and intake and none of the header primaries show signs of oil. Just #1 which had the bad plug and a little more soot than the others. Compression seemed in spec as well.


No CEL, but I have driven the car a total of 150 miles since March.Head gasket showed no signs of leaking that I could see. Bank 2 does have some buildup of rusty looking sludge, so quite possible there was a leak somewhere.
Head gasket I could live with being the problem since the heads are off and getting upgraded. Block or pistons, eeeeeeeh.

 

My 416 has the WS6 Store rockers & trunnion upgrade. The engine has about 1,500 miles so far. They seem to work well.

 

Check bore size. Replace valve seals. Replace plug, wire, and coil on that cyl

 

Thanks, calling TSP to get a price on porting my 317's today. I changed the plugs to TR55's, moved the coil, wire and injector around from that cylinder. The new plug at first fouled out with fuel/oil as it burned off everything, replaced it again and it cleared up a bit. It is still darker than all the others which if you were too look fast look brand new aside from the white strap and a little char on the electrode.

I have no way to check the bore though.

 

you need an oil catch can

 

I have one. Norris catch can, LS6 Valley pan. Not sure I have it all connected right.

• Pass side valve cover to the TB
• Driver side VC capped off
• Top of the can to the valley port
• Bottom to the Intake behind the TB

Though I think the massive amounts of oil in the can and intake were from my overfill and I had honestly not checked it in quite a while so not entirely sure how full it was before that. I had the same problem before I grabbed the catch can when I overfilled on purpose before an event and when I would turn I was pouring out white/blue smoke according to the stewards.

 

This was before teardown. Cyl#1



Cyl#3


Cyl#5




Cyl #1 Exh. Thicker soot, but not oily.

 

Almost looks like a sticking injector that's washing everything down in cylinder 1. That would have other symptoms though. Maybe it's one of the porous head casings? Not sure if that would show up on the compression test.

 

Well, at least I found my clacking. Looking over the video, the rocker with the sketchy trunnion can be seen moving up and down squirting oil out of that D shaped shaft. All the others are rocking normally, but that one rocks and goes up until that gap is closed. WS6Store order going in now. Heads are on their way to TSP.

 

Not a bad idea to have the injectors flowed

 

Stock 28lb injectors, with ported heads and the 228r I was thinking 42lbr's.

 

Injectors fall out of range over time especially if they sit for extended periods. I would at minimum have them cleaned and flowed or buy new and rescale your tables. Trouble with going by a lot of the tech on here is most of it was published when these engines were new, or at least newish. Where nowadays most are in need of many repairs and upgrades just to get on par with new.

 

Good advice. Realized after awhile that I put Techron in the tank back in December and didn't drive it for nearly 4 months then planned on burning it off and never did since I travel so much. So many variables here from the piston being cleaned like that, which I only found searching for the source of the clacking. Now that I know that was a bad Trunnion, going to address everything I can.

 

Heads we dropped off at Texas Speed. WS6store rockers, lifters, and supporting parts are on the way. Just gonna have to wait now I guess.

need to get injectors and work on my base tune in HPT.