bindi

Hi all,

I'm new here but have decided to say stuff it all and beg for help! I posted this similar letter in Aussie Fords but thanks to Axeman's help I am posting it here as you guys might be more interested. I mean, this is your specialty!

So here it is ppl! Thanks for any help.

We have an EA 88 (it's his - MY car of choice is my 88 rolla) and it has major identity issues. It has decided it doesn't like being on the road anymore, and in February it blew it's head.

Now we have a friend who's a mechanic and he got the head reco'ed and got some nice new gaskets etc. The two men put it back on, turned the engine on and there was this god-awful noise. The mechanic turned it straight off and said the engine was dead, get a new one. He reckons the noise is coming from the bottom end.

Well as we are totally broke it has been sitting in the driveway since then and we've been using MY car (reliable cute little thing that it is).

Now it is coming up to rego time. My dad and I looked at it a few weeks ago and after listening to it etc have decided that the noise is coming from the top (the head), back towards the firewall, NOT in the bottom end at all.

I actually drove it. Now don't go AHHHHH! cos if the engine's dead and I have to replace it anyway, what's the big deal about driving it??? It drove very slowly, in spurts, and now I'm at a loss as to what the problem is.

I am not bothering with our mechanic friend cos he is too busy and doesn't believe me when I say it's not the bottom end, he knows best!!!

I can't afford a mechanic unless I know for sure what it is. One of my pet hates is getting it to a mechanic and them trying to fleece me cos I am a chick. They get annoyed when I know what I am talking about (most of the time I do anyhow, otherwise I crap on lol). I am fine with getting a mechanic to do the work and register the thing but I want to know what it is first.

DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEAS???

Thanks in advance,
Bindi

Axeman82

What does the god awful noise sound like? Is it a ticking noise? A crunching noise?

More importantly what did it drive like? Did the noise change at all during driving?

If its a ticking noise then it may just be the lifters which aren't a major problem. A little more info and there's plenty more people on here that know their stuff..

Dan..

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Walkinshaw

id say the god awful noise was the empty HLA when the new head was put on. Was it really really loud clacking noise?? ID put money on either that (which fixes its self after 10-20min)or the cam was installed incorectly and valves were hitting the pistons, in which case OUCH!.

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Ive been described as a vault of usless random knowledge.

Ill take it as a complement i think.............

Axeman82

I was thinking of incorrect cam setting Dan. Which would describe why they said it was cactus cos they are at fault and don't wanna fix it. $$$

I just wasn't sure if valves would hit the pistons. Really need to know what kind of noise it was. And didn't want to frighten Bindi at first.. LOL..

Dan..

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Walkinshaw

i have a habit of jumping to the worst possable case senario.....

__________________
Ive been described as a vault of usless random knowledge.

Ill take it as a complement i think.............

chrisbee9494

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dpk83

yeah, but what was the point in your post chrisbee9494...?

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Rmyers

AFAIK you can't just put a cam in the wrong position, it can only go in one way. If they were silly enough to have removed the timing gear from it's chain however, then there's every posibbilty they installed the cam incorrectly. I got no idea what the symptoms of this would be, nor do I have enough experience in engines, and could be talking sh!t really

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juarez

The valves certainly can hit the piston, but it probably wont turn over after that, because the piston that hit valves will have broken valves in the way, so it wont make it to TDC. On the other hand, if it does somehow, it's possible you're running on 5 cylinders, and possibly on 5 cylinders with timing that is way out as well..

If you let it turn over for 15-20 mins as walky said, and it still makes aweful noises, it's probabl y not just cause there is no oil in the rocker gear etc... this might be a good time to pull it apart again and see what is going on in there. It wont be too hard to undo the already-lose bolts holding the head on, but the intake manifold bolts suck :(

I'm sure one of our qualified E-series technicians will be happy to come over and have a look at it, and Sunny, our pick-a-part guy probably has an engine he can sell you, if the engine really is cactus

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TQE, SWB, ATPS, Worst of the E-series.. and I wouldn't have it any other way

RaceCraft

where are you?
what type of sound?
How'd it run
Did they refil the water etc
So many questions....