The car (my wife's) has 104,xxx miles on it. But lately there has been a loud knock coming from the flex plate area. At first I thought it was a cracked flex plate, but after removing the inspection cover, I found the flex plate looks like something is rubbing against it on the engine side. I'm pretty sure what ever it is hitting is aluminum. But it looks like it is hitting the engine block. I pulled the pan a check the crank endplay which is with-in spec (.012). Now I'm stumped. Has ANYONE ever heard of a similar problem? Or heard of a nice cliff to drive this POS off of?

 

Just run it till it croaks....or sell it to me cheap

 

Park it near the swap meet in Reno and walk away!

 

my blazer did that exact same thing. i crawled under it and had my sister start it and seen NOTHING hitting. I figured i'd see sparks or SOMETHING, but no.
I ended up assuming it might be the transmission pump f'd up or something..... which could be true since the tranny eventually burned up.
I'll get back to you when i start this thing up again in the next day or so. I keep running into problems with actually getting to finish.

Edit. It first started when i put the v8 in. i pulled into my driveway and hit the brake kinda hard and that's when it started. was off n on since then.

 

I know nothing about these engines so this is just a thought. Do they have freeze plugs in the area and if so is it possible one has backed out enough to get into the flexplate and not leak?

 

Hard to say, that could happen, but I don't even know what the back of the high powered 2.0 liter SOHC looks like.....

 

Here's a link to an e-bay auction for a rebuilt 2.0 DOHC engine. Don't know if the blocks are similar. I'd say so... anyway lot of bolts on that rear cover. Maybe a bolt backed out and does look like a freeze plug or two there.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Reman...QQcmdZViewItem

 

Thanks for the link Ky, Mine is a SOHC, ot a DOHC, but the bottom of the engine looks the same. Now that I see a good pic of the rear main seal housing, I guess it could cause the noise too, but I would expect it to leak too.....

 

You sure it is coming from the flexplate area?
I've seen a broken starter nose cone that would grind on the flexplate but the starter would work just fine still. Just a thought.

 

Well I finally figured out what it was.
If any of you get the chance to pull a ford escort engine, Jump off a f-ing cliff, and make sure there are rocks at the bottom, because you do what to live through that ****.