So I've owned my 06' G (DE 5at) for just over a year now, and it's been great. I've been on top of oil consumption, made sure other fluids are topped up, the likes. For the last few months at idle and low RPM's I've heard a knock (which really sounds more like a clattering) coming from my bottom end. Normally I just top off the oil and it gets quiet and all is well.

Recently however the knocking has become a bit more noticeable, and I've started to smell heavy gas smells at a cold startup and I've smelled what I believe to be burning oil. I popped the hood and blue white smoke came out from the passenger side of the engine bay, but not a lot by any means. The oil is currently topped off and I'm assuming it's holding pressure, I know temps are fine etc. There is also a lot of oil buildup around both valve covers.

Here's a few angles of the knocking noise, I'm on mobile and I couldn't quite figure out how to embed YT videos.




Hopefully you guys can provide sort of insight, as of right now I'm about 200 miles away from my mechanic! Thanks for any help yall can provide!

 

It's hard to tell from the videos exactly what the noise is. But from what I can hear it sounds suspiciously like rod knock. It's not light metal ticking, it's more pronounced under the car/on the driver side of the motor and it increases frequency as the RPMs fluctuate. If it is it will get louder and louder over time and eventually fail. I really hope for your sake it's not because that's the sound of death for the motor, there's really no other sound that mimics RN. Keep us posted on how things progress and I'll keep my fingers crossed it's not something serious.

 

I agree, sounds like the beginning of a bearing failure. Mines started light then got increasing louder over a few weeks then it eventually spun.

 

Fingers crossed, but I'm not holding out much hope. Luckily there are some cheap DE's in Houston right now that should be a direct swap. I may build the motor that's currently in it while it's out, who knows? I'll keep her parked until I drive back, hopefully all goes well.

 

Eaz, did your motor just decide to spin a bearing on its own, was it at stupid high miles or something? I find it hard to believe you'd let the oil get low lol

 

That's always been the thing that bothered me the most, it came out the blue. Car was never ran low on oil, and it was at 148k I believe when it spun.

 

Yeah it sounds like rod knock unfortunately but it's worth pulling the plugs, disconnect the battery, rotate the engine by hand to each cylinder TDC and once each piston is about halfway back down on the downstroke put something like a long 3/8 drive extension down the spark plug hole and push with your hand hand to see if you can feel it push the piston down just a little bit more, it SHOULD be rock solid with zero extra movement but if the rod bearing is toast you can usually push the piston down just a tiny bit more.

That has nothing to do with your gas or oil smell though, separate issues.

I would go down to an oil change lube center that will let you down in the pit (usually they will for a $20 tip) so you can poke around with a long screwdriver under the vehicle while it's running to make sure it's not just something that wiggled loose like a heat shield that's causing the sound. If you can be directly under the vehicle while it's making the sound it's MUCH easier to locate exactly where it's coming from. I strongly recommend you bring a mechanics stethoscope but if you don't have one then that long screwdriver works as well, just stick the handle up to your skull near your ear and the sound travels directly into your head.

 

Gotcha, thanks for the tips! I'm gonna do a full oil change and limp it back to Houston from Dallas. When I get there my buddy has a shop with a lift so I'll put it up and see what happens. If the bearings shot I'll just swap another DE and build the one that's in it. I'm hoping that it's simply a loose heat shield or something but I was poking around and it sadly sounds like it's coming from inside the block. As for the gassy smells, I discovered that both of my cats have a dime sized hole in them. Doesn't really matter because I was going to go catless anyway. I'll let y'all know what happens when I get down there this weekend.

 

Save the oil filter and chop it open, lay the filter element out on a clean table and inspect it for metal shavings.

If you change the oil yourself do it in a very clean container and you can look for "glitter" in the bottom of the container the next day.