hey i have 99 grand am with the 2.4 ld9 in it i got it with 74k on it,
at 79k i started to hear the # 3 rod knock that they are known for.
since then i been running Mobil-1 10w-30 in it with some Lucas and Prolong(bought a few case of it dirt cheap years ago)
its been about 2 years and im at 97k now and it hasnt got any louder.
any thoughts how long i got?
its just a daily driver and is driven easily.
thanks! lol
My car was made with wrenches, Not chopsticks.
LOL same thing LD9 with #3 rod knock at 124k....bad miss shift made this happen, swapped it for new motor (used 40k) around 90k on that motor the #3 rod bearing got messed up. Replaced the bearings and used 1 quart lucas and it quieted it for about a week, once that week was over i found a new cav....once i had the new cav, i treated this one like @!#$ until i registered the new one.
Lasted about 2 weeks of hard abuse.....1st gear held it floored bouncing off rev limiter until it just exploded, smoke everywhere engine parts all over the ground, what a mess. pressed the clutch and rolled as far as i could.
^Although that was on the way to the junk yard which my dad had his 89 F150(beater truck) so once it stopped moving, he basically said hold on and crashed into the back of it and pushed me into the junk yard lol
2.2 for life...i will never own another 2.4 after that experience
i have a 07 ecotec 2.4 and auto trans out of a HHR sittin in my garage.
was considering a swap but i think its gonna be way to much trouble than what its worth.
originally i had purchased the motor with the intent on rebuilding it for boost in my HHR.
My car was made with wrenches, Not chopsticks.
im on my 5th car with the 2.4 in it, and there doing great. my ld9 has 125000 on her and my girl just bought another 00 vert with 109000 on that ld9 and no problem. her previous vert had 145000 on it and had the rod knock the day i bought it, put 400 bucks sorth of parts into it, and its still runnng till this day and the minor rebuild was done the beginning of last summer. so idk they have always treated me good. if its not getting louder i would not worry to much about it. just keep a ear open and listen. if its only ur winter beaterthen drive the hell outta it and when it dies it dies.
I didn't even try to prolong the inevitable.
The week the knock started in my indigo "00 Z, I had a motor sitting in the garage for it. After a month of messing with it on the weekends on and off, (The garage I do my work at is about 20 minutes north of me, and it was no real rush to get it done.) It had a new engine in it.
My red '96 has outlived all of them so far, Helps that it only had 90k on it
At 110k, I put a new timing chain, gears, guides, and tensioner on my bone stock 99 Z with a 5-speed. The following weekend, I took it to the drag strip and ran th esack off of it. It's stock so the 15.83 it ran isn't very impressive, but it ran. At 165k, I popped the head gasket. Why it went, I have no clue. But I raped the throttle in that car every time I got behind the wheel. Anyhow, I ran into a regional field engineer from GM shortly after I had it at the drag strip and I told him that I took it to the striop. He told me that I was on borrowed time and that the Cav is designed as an economical throw away car and not expected to last much more than 65k to 70k miles. I asked him about the typical #3 rod protruding from the side of the block and his explination of why mine was still running. He told me that the LD9 has an oil delivery issue to the #3 wrist pin and the galley in the connecting rod gumming up and essentially closing shut, much like an old man's arteries with high cholesterol. He said that the only explination he could possibly come up with as to why my car still ran with no real problems was due to the high rpm that my car ran at every time I turned the key. The constant high flow rate of oil due to higher engine speeds, along with the excellent maintenance history I had on my car, was his reason for my car not having that problem. Moral of this story, apparently if you run the piss out of the LD9, it will run forever.
Now here is the bad news. My wife sold the car in March of 2007 while I was in A-school for the Navy. The girl she sold it to blew the head gasket on it at least 3 times. The car also looked like she played demo-derby with every parking lot pole in the state. I saw the car last back in August of 2010. Apparently her bf fixed the overheating issue it had and according to her, it ran great. In Nov of 2010, she drove the car to the junk yard and sold it for $300 for scrap. I called the junk yard 2 weeks later to get some parts off of it if not the whole car so I could salvage everything she didn't destroy for both my own use and to make a few extra bucks, and they told me that they took the car straight to the shredder from the parking lot. That was my first brand new car purchase and the car I got married in. All I have left is some pics and some memories. RIP red 99 Z. Here's the moral of this story, don't let your wife sell your car to her friends. For some reason or another, and especially if you love the car, you'll learn of it's demise the moment it is slaughtered.
Some people have brain storms, others light drizzles. And then there are those that have droughts.
I have a recently swapped 2.4L in a Sunfire GT with 125k miles, and it still runs without a knock. My neighbor has a Z24 with far more than that on it(I think 180k or 190k), and his still runs like a champ too. Same story though, both engines were run fairly high on a regular basis.
-95 CAVfire SE Sedan 2.2L *Retired*
-99 Sunfire GT 2.4L
-85 Dodge Shelby Turbo TII Roller Cam Build *in progress*
My 99 2.4 hasn't shown any signs of rod knock. I bought it with just over 100k & its at 108k now.. I drive it nicely most of the time, but i like to get on it once in a while
when i bought my wife's blown motor 00z last winter i actually drove it home with #3 louder than @!#$! was about 60 miles. then it sat for 6 months and i drove another 40 to the nearest car wash to clean it and back, no problem LOL just really loud and annoying.
gear to gear oil pump swap ftw!
If it takes forever.... I will die trying. Underdog Racing
Re-reading your original post, you definitely have a lifter tick not a knock....I don't think a knock would have lasted you that long...btw mobil 10w-30 is too thin for a bad bearing you are trying to save, you need some THICK oil to keep it quiet
