bombtrk

All of a sudden, in the past 2 days, the engine on my '91 Ford Escort is really loud. I have added oil the past two weeks, and filled up on coolant. It's 110,000 miles. The engine is loud on start up and accelleration.

Any ideas?

R.S.LOGAN

Hard to diagnose what you mean by " loud " . Could be exhaust , exhaust manifold , gasket etc. or a engine rattle or rumble .

bombtrk

Sound seems to be right under the Engine. There's a slight rumble when I take my foot off the pedal.

R.S.LOGAN

Sounds like it may be big end bearing rattle / rumble . Possibly due to mileage , low oil and coolant .

R.S.LOGAN

Do you get the noise when you rev the engine ?

bombtrk

Initially, when I sped up on the highway the noise would just go away. Now, when I start up, and rev, and drive, the noise is there and loud.

R.S.LOGAN

Just to clear things up , you now get the heavy noise when stationary / not moving and revving engine ? If so , sounds as suggested , big end bearings . Without hearing it really hard to advise . Other possible causes if not the engine could be broken engine or transmission mounting letting engine " kick ", jump about .Could also see if noise still there when clutch depressed .

bombtrk

"Just to clear things up , you now get the heavy noise when stationary / not moving and revving engine?"

Yes.

I'll try that out.

Anything else to try or look at?

bombtrk

When driving with this noise, I do get a smell in the car. It's enough that I have to crack the window.

This is probably unrelated, but I'll throw it out there anyway since I don't know much about cars... The lights on my dash have gone out about a month ago, but only on the dash where the speedometer is, etc... The radio area, inside top lights and everything else is fine.

bombtrk

Could I have put too much oil in? I checked the oil a minute ago and it's past the range.