My car started sounding like a diesel after I put it on the road today it only does it in gear not in neutral. maybe a cracked flywheel? The motor sounds fine but when the transmission is put into drive it sounds like a diesel anyone think they can help? I'm going to pull the starter and check the flywheel tomorrow. I bought the car it had been sitting for 3-4 years and still ran when I got it albeit rough but I did a full tune up new plug wires oil filter and oil change as well as the transmission fluid and filter also put on a new distributor cap and rotor button. The transmission was really hot when I checked for the sound and almost untouchable the sound is coming from the passenger side of the car and I'm not sure what could be causing it but the motor when in park or neutral sounds fine so no lifter or valve rattle.

 

Now it kinda does it in neutral I started it up this morning no diesel noises but when the car warmed up it started again even had someone asked me if I diesel swapped it lol

 

Have you checked the trans fluid? Power steering fluid? PS pump can be noisey like that when low,so can a torque converter and you said you changed the trans fluid,you may need to add more. You can eliminate accessories like the pump or alternator is it's doing it at idle by pulling the belt off and starting the car again to see if it still does it.

 

So when I bought the car the last kid didn't know what he was doing and replaced the distributor well long story short the distributor was loose you could turn it side to side so I twisted the distributor and boom sound gone problem fixed the car was working its way out of time when the engine got hot and allowed the distributor to move just enough to get out of time and when the motor cooled down the distributor would be moved back to the original good position

 

Thanks for the tip found out the power steering pump was leaking

 

Good deal,glad it got resolved as something simple.