Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting 3L noises after Track day - Pic and Vid included

Ok I have had a very strange thing happen to me during a track day. The layout was for one warm up, five hot laps and one cool down. On the fifth hot lap of my second session I shifted from 2nd to 3rd gear coming out of the corner only to find that 3rd gear was no more. I managed to get it into 4th but then as I slowed down I noticed that it wouldn't engage into any gear as I coasted into the pits flashers blinking and tail between my legs. The shift lever was able to move through the gates smoothly just no forward motion.

After a long cool down the car started and drove fine again. The theories around the pits were overheated clutch/flywheel or stuck throw out bearing. I contemplated pushing my luck and getting out on the track again, but first I took the car for a rip through the gears up and down the highway adjacent to the track. Everything seemed to be working smoothly according to the seat of my pants. Then just as I was pulling up to the staging line in pit lane my engine suddenly stuttered and proceeded to knock so loudly that everybody's heads rubbernecked towards the sickening engine death noise.

My dreams of hot laps were crushed and simultaneously replaced with thoughts of being stranded on the highway as I tried to limp my poor beast the 6 hours all the way home. We packed up and headed for home right after the video was shot. At first it was really awful clicking loudly. It was a little slow getting up to highway speed but by the time I hit the first stop light 20mins later the sound was pretty much gone. The rest of the drive home It ran just fine, but I was pretty soft on the gas as you could imagine.

I listened with a mechanics stethoscope and could hear a very slight ticking towards the rear bank. But it was so light I wondered if i was being paranoid, there was always a tiny bit of valvetrain clatter when it was running perfect.

Since then I have pulled the rear valve cover off to reveal no broken valvetrain parts, no scuffing on the cams and no apparent wear on the timing chain. I pulled the oil pan and checked the oil for shavings. I even removed the oil baffle to take a look at the bottom of the rods, yep still 6 of everything and they all looked to be in similar condition. The spark plugs were up to snuff and throughout this whole process not one CEL.

My only theory is that the two occurrences are related somehow. Or that a recently replaced starter could have been catching on the teeth of the flywheel. The car is still apart at the moment but I will maybe post another video if its making any noise after i put it back together.

Sorry for the essay

Please feel free to take a listen for yourself
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB-mwPWLGnQ

That is a strange sound. It sounds like a piece of metal draging on the flywheel teeth. I want to say to start with another starter.

Broken Pressure Plate (or Damaged)?? .....

Check the flywheel/starter combo first since that was the last thing you touched.

After that if it is still not resolved pull your valve covers. I had a cam retainer cap bolt snap after I had put my motor together that made a horrible noise as the broken end of the bolt was hitting the valve cover.

I never heard that sound Elliot.. musta been on the track.

It was sooo [censored] you had to leave early cause it was such a blast (i know im rubbing it in)

Oh well, there's always september.

And like Toddles said, it sounds like something grinding on the flywheel teeth.

Any update on this?????

Sorry for the delay on any update but it has been alot of work trying to figure out what the problem is.
The good news is that I figured out what the noise was.





The bad news is that the noise was a piece of metal bashing around the inside of cyl 1 (and possibly others). Exactly where the noise was coming from. The top of the piston took a beating and its pitted all over. There is also a bit of damage on the head. I took it in to my machine shop and it looks like my car inhaled something hard and that's what caused the damage. There isn't any metal I could see in the oil pan but I still need to dissect the oil filter.
I should be able to get away with removing the valves in that cyl to make sure there isn't any damage to the valve seats and I will pull the other head off just to make sure that's ok as well. I might as well put in new rod and main bearings but I might need to find a 3L piston if my machine shop can't get it. Also it doesnt look like any scoring on the cyl walls, so I should be able to do all the work with the engine inside the car. Any experience with this guys?
Yesterday when I pulled everything apart was a year ago exactly from the swap. I would expect the damage to be from oil starvation during long turns or something like that but it really looks like the damage is only in the top of the engine. How am I going to find out if the damage came from something that broke inside the engine and got sucked into the intake or something that was sucked in from the outside?
As you can imagine I'm a little pissed but I knew there is always a risk when you race no matter how prepared you are. One thing is for sure is no more race track for this Contour.

Funny related story; If you have a 3L piston sitting around somewhere please check out My Classified ad

If you have a cat still in your exhaust system, the object may be trapped there. That could tell you exactly where the problem started.

Still don't see how the lack of gears can possibly relate to the engine noise/damage. I think you may have a TOB to look at & a clutch to inspect.