My 1997 Camaro 3.8L has a rod knocking. I figure I can take the oil pan and pickup tube off and replace the rod bearings from there. Has anyone done this before? Im definitely not trying to rebuild the engine I really just want it to last longer I plan on getting a new one completely. Seems to me that the biggest problem would be getting the top half of the rod bearings out.

 

I'm gonna get ahead and say thank you guys on this forum y'all are amazing and have helped me fix this car numerous times

 

Well if a rod is knocking you'll be very lucky if the crank and or rod isn't too damaged to just replace the rod bearing.

 

if you get that far, once the bearing cap is off just rotate the crank enough to let you get at the other half.

 

I replaced the bearings and it was running good until I drove to town I got ten miles to town then got on the interstate for about two miles and when I got off it was knocking again

 

It worked out pretty well but I didn't get very many miles before it started knocking again any thoughts as to why?

 

Probably the crankshaft is damaged,only real fix for that is have it turned and fit oversized bearings,that is if it can be turned.
Of course that likely means pulling the motor,might as well do a complete rebuild at that point or buy a used motor to replace it with or a remanufactured motor and use yours as a core.

 

I Don't have the tools to pull the engine out and rebuild it or I would. One thing I've noticed is if the car sits for awhile it doesn't knock for a minute- right now the car is knocking, if I crank it in the morning it will be completely gone until I go down the road a bit- so maybe the oil pump is going bad and isn't able to keep proper pressure? I'm reaching for any string that's not attached to a new motor, but a ****ed crankshaft and/or a failing oil pump are my only leads.

 

Do you have an oil pressure gauge?

 

Nope just an oil temperature gauge another reason why I think it could be oil pressure. I also read a few people saying that the oil pumps in these cars seems to "get weak" with age