brwilson

Track day. Session 1, something not right—no codes. Session 2, check engine light flickered—off by the time I pitted out—Durametric, misfire cyl 4 and 6(?). Tried to drive easy to town—one mile down the road, engine would not come off throttle/rpms easy, too loose. Another 1/2 mile, grinding, then loud knocking, getting worse and worse. Pulled over. Engine died—no codes. Tow-strapped to a track shop. Turned it over for everyone’s entertainment—engine fired and REALLY loud knocking for one second—raised eyebrows, ignition off and done.

Not or sure what’s wrong, but car is now stranded in the California desert, 100 miles front home. Hoping for the best. But prepared for the worst.

gnarbowski

Doesn't sound good man

DBJoe996

Any loss of coolant? Oil in water or water in oil? You will have to pull the plugs on 4 and 6 and see what comes out. You could drop the oil sump pan and make a visual inspection. I wonder if the knocking noise was pre-detonation, or something went mechanically wrong. Good luck!

brwilson

No loss of coolant—didn’t look for intermix yet. Pre-detonation may be on to something. When I say knocking, it was like a deep rattle or pinging, like when luging in a way-too-high gear, but loud. Crept up over the course of a half mile. Seems like something went really wrong with the timing. Maybe one bank started to fail or it’s chain started skipping teeth? But I don’t want to start it to find out.

I’ll know more in a few days. Logistics of getting this car home and to a shop are the next step.

808Bill

Do not start it again!

Byprodriver

remove oil filter & inspect

brwilson

Got the car home. It is too late tonight to do much else, but I did verify there is no oil in the water and no water in the oil, and the oil on the dipstick is clean—no glitter.

I won’t start it again. I am am going to call some local shops in the So Cal area. It would probably be impossible to diagnose the problem without dropping the engine, but maybe someone who knows these engines can give me an idea without starting it or turning it over.

if I don’t get any answers buy next week I’ll be dropping the filter, and maybe even the pan.

brwilson

One more thing...Ran my durametric, no faults found. Can’t diagnose anything without starting, but nothing is stored. ?

derv88

wow, I hope it wasn't started one too many times, but for sure it's internal, and it's significant if it's really a knock. if it's a ping, they can be loud too - not sure if rapid succession could be caused by ignition electronics but it sounds possible.

Agent Jester

How many miles? Mainly a track car?

lowpue

Sounds like exactly what happened to my 2000 this past summer on the track. It was oil starvation and the rod bearing is thought to have went braking the rod. One of the 5 pistons does not go up and down when you turn the engine. Decided to put in a 997S engine.

brwilson

Car has 154k miles!. Daily driver. Never gave me major issues except for a O2 sensor and a MAF sensor. Not counting parade laps, I have only tracked it twice: once with the PCA at a track day event, the second two days ago. And I am a novice for sure who just wanted to have casual fun with his car.

I really love this car. Everything on it works (except one of my key remotes) It has been well maintained, is clean, and solid, but not to the level that would make the car very valuable. I have done a lot of simple work on this car myself, and spent too much on it already—I just don’t know if I can stomach a new engine.

Paul Waterloo

Make sure to capture an oil sample when you drain the oil. If it's not obvious that there is an issue, send it off for an analysis. Best of luck.

Quadcammer

sounds to me like the IMSB. pulling the sump will tell you a lot.

AWDGuy

same