Urgent Help Required! ref knocking sound.

[gary d]

Got an incredibly loud tapping sound coming from the top end of my GPX mivec one morning so brought her to my mechanic who diagnosed a problem with the tappets but said there was also a secondary knocking which sounded a little heavier than the tappets. Upon further investigation he found one of the hardened tips on the tappets to have fallen off. said hardened tips are held in place by a little plastic clip some of which were found to be perished. All suspect clips have been replaced and the missing tip was retreived as it had not fallen in to the cylinder, a new timing belt has been fitted and tappets all set accordingly with feeler gauge. Top end now sounds as smooth as a mivec can ( very mechanical sounding engine at their best IMO) On to the secondary knock, Can be heard at it's loudest on the rear bank of the engine, There are three core plugs on the rear bank of the engine and when the stethiscope is placed on the centre core plug this is where the knock sounds loudest. Has anyone else experienced a similar scenario? Can anyone suggest a possible cause.
Prior to this my engine was showing no tell tale signs that anything was amis, in fact she ran 177bhp on Ai Autosports dyno a couple of months prior which for a fiteen year old car aint too shabby IMO
Any assistance will be much appreciated as I cant wait to get her back on the road.

[gary d]

Has anyone heard of or have contact details for a guy named Barry Lively as this was a name suggested to my mechanic that might be able to shed some light on the matter. Also does anyone that has used Paul Nolans services reckon that if my mechanic were to contact him would Paul be willing to advise him on this matter. cheers again.

[steelroe]

The guys name is Brian Lively. Mitsubishi Specialist northern Ireland 04830851764

[steelroe]

Tappets may just need adjusting or it could be a bottom end prob

[gary d]

Cheers Rory, any idea what the number would be for Brian Lively when calling from within the north?

[CJ]

any idea what the number would be for Brian Lively when calling from within the north?

Can the number above not be called from NI? Brian is based in Newry IIRC....

CJ

[Dragonheart]

Not sure but I think that companies in the North have a seperate phone number from within the +44 range as opposed to the +353 range. I know when I was dealing with companies for the job up there they had different numbers anyway if calling from within the north and another one if calling from outside the border.

[gary d]

I think the correct number for Brian Lively within N.Ireland is 02830851764

[gary d]

Bump BTT Any pearls of wisdom guys and gals. Gotta get this sorted

[gary d]

bump

[Muad_dib77]

No luck with the Brian fella?

[gary d]

I left it up to my mechanic to get in touch with him as I thought it unlikely he would give free advice to joe public.

[Muad_dib77]

Paul Nolan gave me free advise back..he even drove all the way to my gaff to have a gander himself.. he's based in dublin though.. A bit far for you...

[gary d]

Finally got to the bottom of the dreaded knock. it spun a big end bearing damaging the crank journal. I had considered scrapping the fto or breaking it and getting an Impreza. On reflection finding an Impreza in as good condition as my fto would be a tall order for the budget I have at the mo. With exception of the engine failure my fto is fairly mint, she's rust free with leatherette interior, momo wheel and so on so I have decided to source an engine for her which leads me to my next question? What is the going rate for a mivec engine these days and where is the best place to look.

[Sebastian]

UK brakers ? u being in N.I ...

[Bernard]

What is the going rate for a mivec engine these days and where is the best place to look.

Since you have to change the engine anyway, you could think about a VR4 conversion.
Steelroe has one for sale ATM, worth thinking about anyway...

[CJ]

it spun a big end bearing

I've heard of other at least 2 other FTOs with the same problem in the last year, this issue would appear to be one of the very few bugbears of the 6A12 MIVEC lump.

Gary, what year / mileage was on the engine?

Give Traynors in Dungannon a shout, they currently have 18 FTOs for breaking - http://www.traynors.co.uk/

http://www.partfinder.ie/ (it lists 2 FTOs in Monaghan)


Reagrds

CJ

[gary d]

She was 95 with 68,000miles and a good service history. mechanic has been researching and reckons it's a rare occurence.

[gary d]

Well folks she's back after 6 months and £1600 Now sporting a rebuilt engine using the refurbed heads from my old engine and a donor bottom end that was stripped and rebuilt. Now to find a good set of Evo 8 Enkei's and sell the 99 Impreza turbo I bought in the meantime, I thought the FTO was a thirsty beast until I bought the Impreza

[PFWard]

Hi Gary
If you dont mind who is your mechanic if you reccomend him I like to us him as I have just started to get noisy tappets and have no time to do these myself at the minute.
Paul.

[Myfeckin FTO]

........sell the 99 Impreza turbo I bought in the meantime, I thought the FTO was a thirsty beast until I bought the Impreza

Absolutely not wrong there - I had a scooby for a couple of months (loaned from a mate) and it made my current 350Z's economy look like a superminis.

[gary d]

My subaru has a simtec ecu with two maps map 1 approx 300bhp map2 is approx 350 bhp. Vf35 turbo, fmic, 550cc injectors a mixture of Hayward & Scott and STi exhaust components, making it even thirstier than your average.

[CJ]

What sort of fuel consumption figures are you Scooby boys getting? My record (if you want to call it that) was a consistent 11MPG (RX-7), beat that!

CJ