Zphere

Hello all,

Just yestersay when i started my 2000 B5 2.8l I immediately noticed a gut wrenching sound. A rhythmatic "knock" the seems to originate from the rear right hand side of the engine (cyl 1-3).


This "knock" isnt extremely loud, i would say its a 3 on 1 - 10 scale in terms of loudness when engine is cold. After driving 20 minutes to work (no other options as I am out of town) and the engine is warm the sound is nearly indistingishable from outside of the car, however i can still pick it up from outside the car and when i listen under the hood it is obvious but originates from the same area which is the rear right hand side of the engine.

A little background, the engine has 207k miles, according to PO the heads were rebuilt at 180k and timing belt was done at 150k. I cannot prove this BUT i just replaced both cam chain tensioners and can attest that the inside of the heads were very clean however i had to replace the tensioners because both pads were completely fatiqued and one pad had literally shattered into a bunch of small peices so i feel that should have been addressed when the heads were "supposedly" rebuilt, and told me other things were done like the coil pack and wires which was NOT the case (had the coil pack go when i was 6 hours away from home) so im inclined to be a pessimist here and think that he may have been absolutely full of it.

Moving on, i just did a full tune up and flush @ 205k when i replaced the tensioners. I had to travel for work so i ran out of time to do a complete timing belt job but its on my priority list. Everything looked clean and i have been using Mobil One EP with 1/2 Lucas every 10k or earlier if the oil was dirty. I know this seems high but i drive nearly all highway miles ( 5 x 1k round trips in the past 6 months).

The sounds is medium pitched, and rpm driven. I have not seen the oil pressure light come on and oil temp is on point. The car drives just the same as far as power goes but obviously im being very gentle.

I have taken a video and i will post it as soon as I finish the upload.

When that is up please give it a listen and tell me what you think.

Is this a misinterpretation of another issue, as ive read that the 2.8l is a relatively solid engine, or is this engine simply nearing the end of its life.

If the latter, can i refurb this engine or is the noise an indicator that it has reaches the end of its life and that the rods are now wearing on the crank?

If the engine can possibly be rebuilt what all should i do while its out? Conversely if this engine is done then i will find a replacement and what should i do to it to refresh it?

Lastly, if the engine IS fubar then im also considering a 4.2l swap and if that happens i will detail that process in this thread, so hey maybe everyone will get a show.

Anyways, video is coming, thoughts so far?

Thanks,
Josh

Edit: here is the youtube video url

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Prospeeder

You should remove the lower oil pan and make sure that those pieces of exploded chain tensoiner didnt pack up into the pickup tube and is starving the engine out. Its very easy, and just use black silicone to reseal the pan. I like using 'The Right Stuff' in a can you get at Napa it dries very quickly and is super oil resistant.