Knocking *cries*: 89 MX-6 turbo

[dr_evil]

Hi,

You guys are always helping me, and I find I can never help with much in return =\. That aside, recently bought cars got it's share of problems (suprise suprise).

I don't need "ahh sucked in", because I had nothing to do with the purchase, but, I'll list all the current problems, and if anyone can help me with any, and rough prices if possible, it'd be *GREATLY* appreciated! Car is completely standard, short of turbo timer.

Overheating; Gets pretty hot, pretty quick. The temp guage doesn't think so, but its hot enough to burn your hand on the bonnet. The coolant looks pretty bad, I've just been too busy to change right now. (Could that be the entire reason its getting so hot?)

Oil; The plugs get a bit oily, #2,3,4 aren't too bad, #1 is pretty bad.

Knocking; It sounds like tappets, after its pretty hot, a reasonably loud knocking sound comes from around the cyl #1 area. When cool it sounds fine. (I composed a theory that the car gets too hot because of problem #1, thins out the oil, and the oil makes this tapping.) Is it using the right oil? I found a brand new looking empty oil container, W20-50?

Black smoke; When pulling higher revs, it blows a bit of black smoke. I read somewhere in the used car thread mx-6's run rich standard, so thats not a big worry. Where could i get this fixed? Any decent mechanics?

Cheers,
Lee

[TurboN13]

I am suspisious of the head gasket. Get the local mechanic to do a quick compression check.

Head gasket problem would explain

* over heating
* dirty coolant

Run your car for a while until the thermostat opens and keep the water topped up, and if you see bubbles coming up at the radiator then that is a good sign of head gasket


The knocking noise could be the water pump which would explain the over heating plus the noise which you say is in the area of no.1 cyl which would be near the water pump. In that case i would say rings might be on their way out letting oil get past to the spark plug and burning and making smoke for you.


Thats just an opinion....



- Shaun

[bugle]

Engines are supposed to run kinda hot, so the bonnet is expected to get hot.
Are you sure the guage is faulty?

[LINO28]

also if teh bonnet is very hot is there a heat sheild on your exhaust manifold just above teh turbo???

some people remove them.

[dr_evil]

I realise cars are meant to run "kinda hot", this just strikes me as a little too hot. It's got a sheet of heat shield material (atleast i think thats what its for?) under the bonnet, and a cover over the turbo + manifold, yet the bonnet gets hot enough to burn your hand after easy driving (half hour on the freeway, 2.5k rpm). I'm not saying it's searing heat and its going to start melting things, I'm just saying I'm pretty sure it's not normal, considering theres no mods done and its driven sedately.

Thanks for the info turboN13, I checked and theres no bubbles in the radiator. I'll get a compression test and it checked over as soon as possible (it's not being driven in the mean time). It very well could be water pump, but would a water pump make a 'TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP'? It's sort of constant. It's a repeating beat, and when you rev the car, It taps more quickly.

[ViNcEnXo]

All normal.

Is the sound a knocking sound or a ticking sound??

They get noisy HLA's...

They have a nice bung on the drivers side bottom of the radiator, undure it, drain all the coolant, stick a hose in the top of the radiator, turn it on and wait for the water to come out clean, then do the bung up, start the car, and pour coolant in.... Wait for all the bubbles to come out of the radiator, put cap back on.

Quick way to clean out radiator... Although a full radiator/block flush is better.

[dr_evil]

Even the oil in cyl 1? It's a pretty loud tick, when hot, I would have thought it was a knock, but I may be mistaken. I noticed a very faint tick when cool, a really, really loud tick/knock when warm.

For piece of mind if nothing else, how can I shut it up? What needs to be replaced/done?

[ViNcEnXo]

You need to clean the HLA's...

I recommend you register at www.mx6.com, people always talking about the cars and the aussies know their stuff... Avoid the general forum, it's full of 15 year olds that have just gotten their licence in America.

Do a search over there.

Your guage should sit in one of two places.... Smack in the middle, or about 5mm to the right of the left line...

Where does yours sit?

[dr_evil]

Originally posted by ViNcEnXo
Your guage should sit in one of two places.... Smack in the middle, or about 5mm to the right of the left line...

Where does yours sit?

I lost you there sorry. Guage? Which guage?

[PeterD]

He's talking about the temp gauge

[mad]

Flush the radiator, if problem persists get it reco'd and it should move up much at all.

You have worn valve train - when it heats up it gets noisy. Normal for any engine. Not really worth fixing.

You can also try running some oil cleaning agent in your car (you wack it in, idle the engine for 10 mins, then drain ALL the oil (let it sit for a good 30 mins to drain) and replace the ouil and filter. It's often good to let that run through for a day or so then replace again so there is no cleaner left in the system. This will remove all the crap built up on your tappets/rocker arms whatever.

You have a 10 + year old car so its all expected.

Are you running stock boost?

Black smoke = cardno= too much petrol, which is fine for a turbo car.

[Sturmovik]

When replacing the coolant dont forget to change the thermostat also.

[TurboN13]

I thought running rich was grey smoke. Oil blue and new motor = white.


If your car is constantly cold, it might not have a thermostat at all. some mechanics think this is a smart idea.