Engine noise

Yeah, this is easy to check, if you don't have a stetoscope, use a long screwdriver, just place the screwdriver on whatever you want to hear and place your ear on the end of the screwdriver, it should help you ID what sound comes from where.

Still, I would ask for the spec sheet for the pistons and bore measures that where taken from the machine shop.

If I am paying 3/4k for an engine, I want to know exactly how it was built, using what parts and what clearances where measured during the build. I want to know rods used, if the ends where measured and balanced, how much weight needed to be removed from where to balance everything.

Putting a performance engine together is not just taking parts off the shelf and scewing everything together. It takes planning and this information is critical for you to know.

Without this information, there is no way to know if what you are hearing is normal or not.

On a side note, I would never run pistons with a clearance of 0,006 for a daily driver. The constant start / stop of the engine will prevent the engine from reaching the correct expansion of the pistons and you will end up with an engine needing a rebuild quickly because the bores are going to be out of round.

You probably didn't skip a tooth yet if the motor is still running good. If your timing was off, I am guessing that it wouldn't run good and/or feel very powerful.

Refer to my old comment and video about removing the main tensioner to reset it and to reinstall and activate it. It is a fairly simple process. It is possible that it was installed, but not pressed in with a long padded screw driver to be activated.

You should also pull the spark plugs and turn the motor over a few times to see what that does to the chain tension. Sometimes the chain will show some slack (like what you show) during portions of the compression cycle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evJuIsCD6Gs

Even though the video is for a 2.2 without VVT, the portion that talks about the main chain tensioner is the same.

Not that this helps you with your engine problem.... It just set up my reply perfectly to some people that asked me a question a while back.

Back when i bought my core engine to have built into a forged engine I had a few people ask me why I didnt follow thru and build it myself. I immediatly knew that my knowlege base was really shallow after I tore my core engine apart... There was way to many unknowns for me. It was just to easy to pick up the phone and say "build me one". And there is some warranty with an engine from a vendor. Which is really great....

@iNewton is a pro at building these engines now. But that knowlege came at a steep cost.... It cost him money but worse than that was TIME... i look up to all those that can build these things and make them run perfectly... I would just follow the instructions that these guys have gave you.

I wish i could tell you what that noise is. But it sounds like yall are close to finding the issue. The chain did look loose but as @TravAZ mentioned it can look like that at certain times in the firing cycle.

I am waiting like everyone else to see what it is that you find.

Chain tension is not constant. It varies depending where the cams are on the lobes, sometimes its a bit slack sometimes its tight. This is the reason you have that guide between the cams to prevent the chain from poping out when tension slacks.

Again, I would advise against touching anything on the engine and contact the builder and get the opinion. Sound I hear from de video really sounds like mine but more pronounced. Understanding that different phones / environnements will produce different recordings, its hard to say if it really is worst or not, but at this point chain tension is not one of the things that would explain the knock and again, in the case where the cams really did skip, its too late, you would have bent valves and scored pistons as the pistons and valves interfere with each other on this engine when valves are open and piston is at TDC.

Too hard to tell on the video, but I will trust you when you say it is better.

It was an easy thing to pull and reset, or install a new one and activate it correctly. It is a bit odd that this tensioner has to be pressed in once in place to be activated. It possibly could have been overlooked.

You can easily pull the valve cover after driving it for a while and see what the slack looks like.

Hopefully you are all good!

Sounds a bit better. But you will have to be the one that decides if it is ok. Its hard to tell on the youtube video. Move the camera closer to the engine and make the video again.

@jluna317

Well, my answer is going to suck, but if the bearings are shot on two cylinders, you have a issue.

You will need to show pics of the bearings and also the crank journals, but premature bearing failure is normally caused either by bad lubrication, low oil pressure, incorect rod to crank clearances or severe detonation.

I would suggest changing your oil if the bearings are shot, as you probably have some bearing material in the engine now, and that is not good news.

How did you check for rod knock?

The "good" way of doing it is to remove the spark plugs, wind the engine (clockwise) until the piston on the cylinder your are checking is at the top and then just a bit more until the piston starts to go down a bit. Just a hair we don't want the crank to start traveling down, we just want the crank to start pulling down on the piston via the rod.

Take a flat long screwdriver (make sure its clean), insert it into the plug hole and push down on the piston.

You should have zero play. If the piston moves down and you hear metal hitting metal, your bearing for this piston is worn out and this is what you hear.

The bad news is that depending how long this has been happening, you might have scored the crank journals too, which means it would have to get ground or repolished depending.

The journals should be smooth and have no scoring marks on it. If you see any marks then its possible some bearing material got caught in there and damaged the crank. If you see bluish coloration on the crank journals it means things got hot in that spot and might mean rod end being out of round or clearances too tight.

Rod ends should also be checked for out of roundness and the rod bolts should be replaced if you can't verify if they are stretched or not. If they are you run the risk of one failing and that means engine destruction.

Anyhow, send pics.

I have been watching from the beginning and have one huge question. If I am correct this motor has not been installed very long, and I wouldn't think it has many miles. What kind of support from the "Builder" have you received? There is no way a newly built motor purchased from a vendor should be having these type of issues that cause you to break the motor down. Sucks for you, hope it can be fixed without much more effort.

Quote from jluna317

@Slingrazor yes I'm getting some support from builder we're just hoping it's not worst then it is but I think we caught it on time. If not I'm sure builder will assist with making it right

That is the reason I will work with a local builder that stands behind his work when I have to forge. Vendor should take responsibility with how few miles you have done. You are a good man not to go vocal on this........

@jluna317 broken plugs ?

Did you check the plugs and pistons for contact? That males no sense at all.

The manifold is not very nice but there is no reason it would make so much of a difference for boost to the point where you are wearing out bearings and breaking plugs, to me that is totaly illogical. Something else is going on in that engine.

Is it your original engine that got forged or did you purchase the engine complete and already built?

Not trying to be a dick here, but seriously ,considering Alpha has not been building ecotecs for very long (compared to DDM or Hans) I would ask for measured specs and details of what they did down to torque used for every bolt when they built the engine, especially if they got a used block from totaled car and rebuilt it.

If they can't provide this that means that it has not been verified and to me this engine would be worthless, because there are so many things that could have been setup wrong you will be chasing gremlins forever and no one will be able to help you out without doing a complete teardown of the engine and make measurements.

Worn bearings, broken plugs, rods knocking and possible piston slap on a 5k miles engine makes absolutely no sense at all. This to me sounds like an engine that was just torn down, swapped rods and pistons, got bores honed a bit, adjusted ring gaps and put everything back together with nothing else done.

Where the cams removed during rebuild?
Where the hydrolic valve lifters drained before re-installing the cams? If not that could have bent a Cam on 1st startup (cuz lifters get hydrolocked and push on the cam).

So many little details that you need to check, just putting parts in and torquing bolts, thats not how you prep a performance oriented motor.

You might have worn tensioner or guides, streched cam chain, old oil pump, out of round bores, too tight rod / crank clearances, too much piston to bore clearance, pistons not having proper deck clearance, worn or improper crank to block clearance, bad crank thrust clearances, so many things to check when trying to figure this kind of issue out, you can't be just replacing parts without having measured everything and be sure you are in spec everywhere.

Again, my advise, as shitty as it is, would be to take out the longblock, tear it down and start from scratch measuring everything before putting it back to together. Its the only way you know for sure that it was done right, that you are in spec. In your case, that means builder takes responsibility for his build.

Do you have a oil pressure gauge? If not, get one and check oil pressure at the head. Worn bearings will usually make the oil pressure drop so its a good indicator.