I have a 94 camaro with the 3.4 in it with 225k. Transmissions been rebuilt. Brand new head gaskets. I was driving on interstate and car started knocking and died. It started after I let it sit for a few but the knocking progressively got worse. Parked it and over a 5 day period removed the top half. At first thought I figured either rocker a rod or lifter; all appeared to be fine replaced gaskets and put back together. Knocking was still present this time would lose power anything over 2k rpms oil does need changed but previous owner put a screw in drain plug and run risk of cracking pan if removed and have had hard time finding a new oil pan locally. But any ideas what could be causing problem? Planing on getting all 12 lifters put in this week. Any other suggestions

 

You need to locate the area in which the sound is coming from. Put new lifters in will not do much good if a rod bearing or wrist pin is making the noise. I would avoid driving it until the problem is fixed. May be a good time to find a doner engine.

Dorman part number for oil pan. 264-125, Napa, Adavance, Carquest, Autozone or any local parts store that can order Dorman parts should be able to get it quickly.

I am sure you can find one for cheap on ebay as well.

 

sounds like the engine is a goner. bummer. 3.4 used for the camaro are not easy to find in good shape with low miles.

 

hi ive recently started having the same problems with mine. I know its probably not that simple but could someone please listen to the video clip and try to advise me what the knocking may be. I live in the uk so nipping to breakers for a replacement is out of the question. I can only find a handful being sold in the uk for silly money. if I could order specific parts online rather than whole new engine that would be better. However I do think it may be terminal as it seems to have lost a lot of power. Any help appreciated.

 

It sounds like it is coming from the drivers side of motor I've been told by a few people that it sounds like a bent rod. Rods were straight. My buddy who's been working on motors for 15 years swears its a lifter tick. Idk. How would I go about checking the bearings or pins. Ive done put almost 2 grand in repairs to this car.

 

You wouldn't know the condition of the piston rods (what your few people were referring to) unless you dismantled the engine. Or were you talking about the push rods, that's a different animal. Disconnect one spark plug wire and run the engine, start on drivers side since that's where you seem to be hearing the noise from. If the sound is still there, shut engine down, reconnect that plug wire and remove another one and continue. Removing spark/fire from one cylinder relieves that piston of the severe downward force from combustion. If the knock goes away with doing this, then you have a bad connecting rod/wrist pin/rod bearing in that cylinder. Of course, you could have more than one bad one, so this test might not be foolproof.

 

I'm talking about the push rods. I should have specified a little more. But yes we had from the heads up removed

 

Any chance you can get us a video? I wouldn't put my money on a bent rod. A bad rod bearing or wrist pin is much more likely. A lifter is possible, but lifters make a quick tick noise where else a bad rod bearing or wrist pin will making a loud knocking noise that's more in tune to engine speed. You can find videos on youtube of both instances to help you better narrow down the problem.

 

I'm in the process of checking the rod bearings now. Fighting with the starter to come out and drop the pan. Will motor have to be pulled or can I check them from underneath?

 

/? will 3800 fit in there ,sounds like there hard to find,an only made for few years