While driving my 1984 at 65 mph this morning I suddenly developed a very load noise. It sounded like a marble was in one of the cylinders bouncing around. I pulled over and checked the engine, the sound seemed to be coming from the rear of the motor. The engine function seemed ok (no miss or bad running) so I tried to drive it home. The noise immedietly got worse and eventually what ever the problem was caused the engine to die. After towing the truck home I tried to restart. Engine started normally but there was a huge squeal from under the truck. After about three seconds something broke loose and rattled around. Now truck seems to run fine. havent road tested yet but will soon. I am wondering if something in the clutch assemble could have caused the problem. Any suggestions?. keep in mind new long block. new clutch, new bearings about 2000 miles ago.

sounds like you lost a bolt or the clutch came apart.

im guessing on this but it sounds like the marble might have been a flywheel bolt. the squeeling might be the bolt scraping metal to metal on the flywheel, that or the throwout bearing. when you pressed in the clutch did the engine run better ? could be in the transmission if that the case may want to pull the tranny and take a look to be safe

x 2. Did you put any loctite on the flywheel bolts when you put all that back together? Yepper.....