Post by sbstar on Feb 16, 2007 17:40:54 GMT -5
I was trying to help out this kid who owned this 93 Plymouth Laser RS-T fwd A/T. He claimed there was a knocking noise after he had raced the car. It started about 5 months ago and the car has been sitting at his grandma's house ever since. I immediately diagnosed the problem as a spun bearing and made the hour long trek to Roscommon to pull the oil pan. I spent nearly 4 hours laying on my back in the snow trying to pull the stinking oil pan (I know way too long but I'm guessing that none of the bolts I had to remove have ever been removed in the cars 14 year history). Unfortunately the exhaust bolts were so rusted they stripped and I couldn't get them off (kid owned zero tools and I hadn't brought any vise grips or a hack saw). So despite the fact we could take all the bolts off the oil pan we couldn't remove it. A friend of his came over with vise grips a couple days later and removed the exhaust and pulled the pan. This is what both of them claim
They removed the pan and started pushing on the rod caps, one of them rattled easily so they pulled the rod bolts off and removed the cap..they found/pulled no bearing. I came over the next day and there was no bearing at all, how a bearing just disappears I'll never know. My bet is it fell off in the snow when they pulled the rod cap and they just missed it somehow.
The rest of the bearings looked like crap and the crank was of course scored, unfortunately the dude already bought some stock sized bearings. Instead of doing the easy route of getting the crank out and turned (yes I know dsm cranks shouldn't be turned because of the nitride coating..oh well) he decided to find a new block. Everyone he asked said the 2g and the 1g 7 bolt blocks are the same (of course they aren't the 2g doesn't have the holes for the front 1g motor mount). I went over there and started to help him swap the block when we discovered this. He said he was just going to junk the car since his grandma had told him to have it out of the yard by the next day or she was going to have it junked. I didn't have the cash so I talked to my father in law and we decided to buy the car, rebuild the engine with the good crank out of the 7 bolt block and sell the car. The car has a good clean interior and exterior other then a small rust spot on the passenger rear quarter panel. So it begins...
They removed the pan and started pushing on the rod caps, one of them rattled easily so they pulled the rod bolts off and removed the cap..they found/pulled no bearing. I came over the next day and there was no bearing at all, how a bearing just disappears I'll never know. My bet is it fell off in the snow when they pulled the rod cap and they just missed it somehow.
The rest of the bearings looked like crap and the crank was of course scored, unfortunately the dude already bought some stock sized bearings. Instead of doing the easy route of getting the crank out and turned (yes I know dsm cranks shouldn't be turned because of the nitride coating..oh well) he decided to find a new block. Everyone he asked said the 2g and the 1g 7 bolt blocks are the same (of course they aren't the 2g doesn't have the holes for the front 1g motor mount). I went over there and started to help him swap the block when we discovered this. He said he was just going to junk the car since his grandma had told him to have it out of the yard by the next day or she was going to have it junked. I didn't have the cash so I talked to my father in law and we decided to buy the car, rebuild the engine with the good crank out of the 7 bolt block and sell the car. The car has a good clean interior and exterior other then a small rust spot on the passenger rear quarter panel. So it begins...