ol' slant is dead... need help!

-
snowcrow

snowcrow

2 Time dart owner
Joined
Apr 23, 2012
Messages
405
Reaction score
10
Location
Sanpete, Utah
So I took a 45 minute drive to the next city and had a crack in my heater hose which in turn I leaked all my anti freeze out. I had to drive back a bit and in the process I noticed the car was ticking very loudly and when I slowed I noticed it was a grinding knock :/ so now I have come to the conclusion that I've spun a bearing. Where do I start with the whole rebuild or replace process? Can I just start by draining my fluids and unplug/label everything to get ready to pull the motor? Or will I do some damage to an already damaged motor by letting it sit with no fluids in it? HELP! haha
 
Dig a hole, mumble some Christian words over it, throw it in and cover it up.
 
snowcrow said:
So I took a 45 minute drive to the next city and had a crack in my heater hose which in turn I leaked all my anti freeze out. I had to drive back a bit..... HELP!
Click to expand...

WTH, did you keep driving it after you knew there was a coolant leak. Are you unable to walk or call for help? You might have been able to just fix that issue instead of creating a much bigger problem.

I would drain the oil first and see how much metal particles are in it. If you are going to rebuild or replace it fluids need to come out anyway.

Mark all your wiring and take pictures as you go so you will know how everything goes back together.
 
the hose was fine as well as my fluids when i left my house, the anti freeze flush "T" cracked along the way and since i was driving i didn't notice anything wrong till i heard a ticking. after i stopped and checked i drove not even another mile then replaced the hose and the anti freeze. after that i drove a 1/4 mile with not much heat then decided to trailer it back home. i didn't purposely drive with no anti freeze.
 
JMO, the oil got over heated and lost all viscosity and is burnt..
I would do an oil change , cost about $17.00 and see how it sounds then.
Is this a hydraulic lifer /6 ? and was it not knocking before this happened ?
Do you have an oil pressure gage or light ?

If you want/have to open it up and look at your bearings I would go threw it while it is out and have a new /6 in your car.. JMO..

But I would definitely do an oil change and see what it sounds like then.
 
memike said:
JMO, the oil got over heated and lost all viscosity and is burnt..
I would do an oil change , cost about $17.00 and see how it sounds then.
Is this a hydraulic lifer /6 ? and was it not knocking before this happened ?
Do you have an oil pressure gage or light ?

If you want/have to open it up and look at your bearings I would go threw it while it is out and have a new /6 in your car.. JMO..

But I would definitely do an oil change and see what it sounds like then.
Click to expand...

Pretty good advice here....if it is still rattling you will only be out a small amount of $$
 
inkjunkie said:
Pretty good advice here....if it is still rattling you will only be out a small amount of $$
Click to expand...
Thank you inkjunkie, I am still wondering if this is a solid lift/adjustable early engine or not, I bought a 74 Dodge truck /6 4 in the floor flat bed some 20 years ago for $300.00 and drove it home thinking I was going to put a 318 in it because it rattled and sounded like every rod bearing was toasted, I pulled the drain plus and I bet 6 quarts of burnt oil came out, had a gas smell, I changed the oil and did a quick rebuild on the 2 barrel and when I fired it up it sounded like a new engine, drove that flat bed for 3 years pulling my stock car to the track.
 
The slant 6 is notorious for poking the #5 rod through the left side of the block but this is wear related rather than appearing at overheating.
I would pull the pan and have a look. If you don't see a problem, clean the oil pick up screen, add the cost of a pan gasket to the cost of an oil change, pray a little, and fire it up.
 
Thank you very much redfish and memike I definitely will start there. The knock was only a little tick back when I would drive it for about 20 minutes at freeway speed (65) I've been asked a few times about the hydraulic lifters but I wouldn't know. I do have a oil light but I didn't think anything was going on since it would come on when my motor was warm and the idle stayed the same. The light would only come on at 1000 rpms. I will definitely start with an oil change. What does it mean if my oil DID smell like gas? Oh and its a 75 slant 6 225.
 
I'm confused because I don't understand how this happened. I saw all those commercials where they drained the oil and water out of a slant six, sprayed water in the crankcase and yet it never blew up. Add to that the legions of people that say the slant six is the toughest engine there is and I don;t see how a little overheating blew it up.

All sarcasm aside, I've seen about 4 of those suckers start knocking and one of those throw a rod. They have a long stroke which stresses bearings, so they are not indestructible. I like them, but I think a 318 is longer-lived with equivalent maintenance.

If it's knocking you'll have to pull it and rebuild it. Not difficult or expensive but unavoidable if a bearing went. That or drop in another high-mileage(and they are all high mileage by now) engine.
 
snowcrow said:
Thank you very much redfish and memike I definitely will start there. The knock was only a little tick back when I would drive it for about 20 minutes at freeway speed (65) I've been asked a few times about the hydraulic lifters but I wouldn't know. I do have a oil light but I didn't think anything was going on since it would come on when my motor was warm and the idle stayed the same. The light would only come on at 1000 rpms. I will definitely start with an oil change. What does it mean if my oil DID smell like gas? Oh and its a 75 slant 6 225.
Click to expand...

That's a sign of engine wear and/or a clogged screen. It takes only 9 p.si. oil pressure to turn the light off. Warmed and low rpm was going below that.
Top end starving for oil.
It is possible that overheating caused even more blockage at the pick up too.
All guess work. Hope for the best and be prepared for the worst. Good luck
 
So I did the oil change and ran a magnet through the oil to see if I got anything and I couldn't see even a fragment BUT when I took off the oil filter, there were 2 centimeters long pieces of metal that were paper thin. What does that mean?? Could it be shavings from the oil pump or shavings from the oil filter factory??
 
Will the magnet draw to those ?
Bearing material isn't steel.
Babbitt bearings are mostly lead ( some alloy ).
 
Yeah the magnet collected them easily and they were definitely steel cause they even had little blue and yellow tint from heat.
 
the process goes like this,

remove slant 6, dig hole muble few words and throw it in

put in nice v8 and don't look back; you'll never be sorry!
 
snowcrow said:
So I did the oil change and ran a magnet through the oil to see if I got anything and I couldn't see even a fragment BUT when I took off the oil filter, there were 2 centimeters long pieces of metal that were paper thin. What does that mean?? Could it be shavings from the oil pump or shavings from the oil filter factory??
Click to expand...

Pictures would help. Were these under the oil filter?
 
They were inside of the oil filter in the top holes. I would post a pic but I already threw the shavings away. I'm currently sitting in the position where my car is on the jack with no oil and wondering if I should even put more oil in. I bought 40 weight, zinc and oil stabilizer for this oil change.
 
Since they were on the small holes of the filter they came some where in the engine. Without some pictures and the fact that a magnet sticks to them I couldn't even take an uneducated guess as to what you have.
 
snowcrow said:
Yeah the magnet collected them easily and they were definitely steel cause they even had little blue and yellow tint from heat.
Click to expand...

Sounds like those might be pieces of the rings. :(
 
RedFish said:
Sounds like those might be pieces of the rings. :(
Click to expand...

I had thought that but they would have to gone through the pick up screen and the oil pump. I would be wondering about the oil pump. With out a tear down there is only guessing where they came from.

With the lack of other particles being in the pan they may have been trapped in the engine for years or from a previous rebuild.

I agree put the oil in it and see what happens.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top