Picked up a 2001 GT a few months ago. It has its little body flaws but the black leather interior is pretty flawless. Replaced a blown front drivers side speaker right away and both mufflers. It had a minor engine tick but I put a 1/4 of a can if seafoam in the oil and it went away. I also remounted the rearview mirror and installed a fresh air filter.
Last month I decided to change the oil. After that the problems began! The day after the oil change I took the car for a required emissions test. On the way there I noticed the engine running poorly. My uncle works at the shop where I took it for the emissions test and he said it has a rod knock.
After some mixed reviews of a video on here, I decided to tear the engine down to the lifters to see if any issues existed there. Completed that yesterday (5/23/14). Lifters were slightly worn and sticking. Some tubes in the lifter rods were clogged. New lifters, LIM gasket, modded the LIM to delete the coolant passages to the TB, new UIM gasket, TB gasket, valve cover gaskets, pcv valve, water pump, 180º thermostat, upper and lower radiator hoses and aluminum coolant elbows and flipped the dog bone mounts. Also removed the spark plugs and inspected them.
Got it all back together and to my dismay, no improvement. I'm not totally upset that I put the work into the upper end of the engine. I gave it a shot that it would fix the problem, and if nothing else, I made some good improvements there.
While inspecting the engine after the repairs, I removed the oil cap and did not observe any fresh oil in the valve cover. I also noted that the assembly lube I used on the rockers was still present which I believe it should have been washed away or at least diluted by oil with the amount of time I had the engine running. Open to opinions on that. Clogged oil passage? Bad oil sending unit/oil pump? If the engine isnt getting oil I think it may have spun a bearing that is causing the engine noise/knock.
Sent from my Tab3
