SHO Boom

[ViPER1313]

A day in the life of SHO ownership:







Car has a loud top end tap from the motor, it also loses lots of power whenever it happens. Only when the motor is hot (so far.) I'm thinking sticky valve or injectors. Going to bring it back home and drive the other piece for a while or buy a new daily (something 4cyl, Japanese, low miles.)

[Goodspeed]

When did this happen? I thought I remember you saying you'd give the SHO a merciless unforgiving field death when its time was up

[ViPER1313]

When did this happen? I thought I remember you saying you'd give the SHO a merciless unforgiving field death when its time was up

*if it was a rod bearing* - its time is not up 8)

[REED]

I thought you had black wheels?

Is the tow truck driver giving you the finger in the third pic

[ScottyB]

aaaah Adam. sorry man. are you leaning on the car and crying in the second pic?

sticky valve sounds kinda on track. is compression good when it's cold? at least then you could isolate it to the top end...

[ViPER1313]

aaaah Adam. sorry man. are you leaning on the car and crying in the second pic?

sticky valve sounds kinda on track. is compression good when it's cold? at least then you could isolate it to the top end...

no lol, I was making dramatic pictures (and it was me flicking off DJ). IDK why a valve would stick while warm and not while cold - I have to tear into stuff to find out. Worst case scenario is I source a motor and refresh it / drop it in (not hard or expensive.) In the mean time I'm just going to do what I was going to do in a month - buy a cheap daily that will last me 5 years or so without trouble.

[ViPER1313]

Alright, I have a problem with what I assume are the internals of my rear cylinder head that seems to be temperature related.

* After a hard drive last week (car was full to the brim of oil, never overheated) I came to an idle back at my house and experienced a STRONG knock from the top end of the motor at idle.

*Revving the motor would make the noise disappear completely, and it would not immediately return (very random). Seemed to only happen at idle.

*No oil light was present at any time (sensor works perfectly, 20k miles old)

After the car cooled down, the car returned to normal. Ran fine, accelerated fine, no knock for the duration of this week (short drives too and from school).

*Today, as I was driving normally (80 degrees outside) with the car at full operating temp, the knock came back, accompanied with stuttering from the motor (like it was running on 5 cylinders.) The noise seemed to be coming from the top rear (beneath the secondary solenoid.) Still no oil light, but definite and noticeable intermittent loss of power. Power loss and knock were felt especially while accelerating.

I had the car towed back to my house, so now I need some opinions (my thought processes below):

-Sticky Injector - To me the knock sounds way to loud to be this. It would explain the heat related issue and power loss though.

-Stuck Valve - This seems the most likely problem. Could / would the problem appear and disappear as it has been and be temperature related? How can and should I check for this?

-Spun Rod Bearing - Bearings replaced at 130k miles (164k now), 3k mile oil changes, car was full of oil while running hard. I find this hard to believe, because to my knowledge rod knock doesn't go away once it starts, and the oil light should be on.

-Ejected valve shim - This would be obvious when I tear into the top end, but it wouldn't be something that started and went away again? (would it??)

-Secondarys knocking - I have heard about this happening before, but once again I don't think they could be as loud as this noise was.......

-Failed Chain Tensioner - I don't think this would explain the intermittent losses of power, although it would cause a temperature related knock.

[ScottyB]

Adam, is the chain tensioner hydraulic or strictly mechanical? the stories i've heard of chain tensioners is that they are loud at idle when they fail, but it doesn't cause loss of power, just a ton of noise.

i very much doubt it's rod bearings. it wouldn't be intermittent or temperature related, and would if anything be worse when cold due to tolerances IMO. also the service life would be alot longer unless something was f'd up during installation.

valve shim would also seem to be something that would affect at all rpms, all the time, regardless of temperature.

i would put my money on an injector or stuck valve. at least the injector is easy to check. i don't know much about how to diagnose a stuck valve.

you're certain everything is cool in sparkplug world? maybe check the condition of your plugs just in case

[Maengelito]

scotty's right. just make sure the easy stuff is good first, like spark plugs, plug wires are tight and secure on both the plug and the dizzy cap, etc. if its an injector, wouldnt you be throwing a CEL for engine misfire or something? you could try switching the injector with one from the front and then seeing if the noise comes from the front if it happens again. these things should take long and can really help narrow things down if it doesnt solve them.

[ViPER1313]

And the rabbit hole deepens - I'm going to throw new injectors at it and zip up the top end. If it does it again I will diagnose the hell out of it before tearing into anything else.

[JustinG]

I just thought i would bring this back up, i was looking at some of my previous threads, and this is what you said when i got my gsx.

glutton for punishment......

shut up, you drive a taurus

A Taurus that was made 5 years before your RS and will still be running 5 years from now :lol: Whatever - when something breaks give me a call, I might drive you to AdvanceAuto if I'm feeling generous.

Lemme know if/when YOU need a ride

[WRXtranceformed]

Pwnt ^^^

[ViPER1313]

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duitTd0z72I">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duitTd0z72I</a><!-- m -->

The video doesn't give an appreciation for how much the belt actually moves up and down.

[JustinG]

so i assume the tensioner is what went out?

[BLINGMW]

The video doesn't give an appreciation for how much the belt actually moves up and down.

do you know for sure that isn't "normal"? I was quite surprised at how little tension was on the belt that I put on Jess' Accord, I bet it hops around like that one. For you, assuming it's still in time, this isn't really the problem right? Or were you posting this just as a "hey, look at that, isn't it neat!" :dunno:

[Jeff]

Looks better then the belt on most TDs....they are floppy on the back side like woah. I'd tend to agree that that is normal...

[ScottyB]

yeah i dunno, i can imagine it being much worse than that

[D_Eclipse9916]

are you guys kidding me? I would never have a belt that loose! Good lord!

[.RJ]

a belt too tight is worse than a belt too loose - that belt tension looks fairly normal too me - maybe a *little* loose but nothing i'd lose sleep over unless the head(s) were milled

[ScottyB]

i've had a belt to tight and it sounded horrible...i'd be wanting to see some wiggle room