Folks, thank you so much for your time on this. Please forgive me, but although I am a very technical person and had a very successful production company, I am ABSOLUTELY CLUELESS regarding internal combustion engines. This site has been a critical resource for my belated education! á ;-) á And, before I proceed, please allow me to vent my undying devotion: I will NOT give up my Raider! That girl has bailed my butt out so many times, in such remote locationsá.á.á.á
Please allow me to respond in order of posts:
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Dave and mxmikie, regarding the harmonic balancer:
I went outside, popped the hood, and wrestled with the crankshaft pulley (with the replacement bolt through itùthank you, Larry!). I couldnÆt get it to ôwiggle.ö I also assume that such an effort probably means nothing regarding the security of its mounting. Do you have any suggestions as to how I might be able to tell if the harmonic balancer/crankshaft pulley might be the potential source of the knock?
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Frank, again, thank you for your efforts as well. (The work you have put into the G-Raider is astonishing!) Doing more research, I found
this topic,
including your responses relevant to this issue, and I was not surprised to see that I had already bookmarked it with four stars!
I have concerns, however, about buying a used 100K+ miles engine, in that it might easily develop similar problems shortly after it goes inùa two-day process (IÆm told) for the shop.
If I could get the V6 back (as close as possible) to factory specs with a full rebuild, that would certainly be worth considering. But if I go the rebuild route, and given your advice above, I would have some questions:
- What then are the risks with a rebuilt engine, compared to a replacement engine?
- Might a replacement engine be less or more expensive than a full rebuild?
- Where does one buy the gaskets, etc. for a full rebuild?
- How long might a full rebuild be expected to take?
- etc.
I have not yet found any pages specific to the rebuild process on this Godsend-of-a-forum, and such questions may well be premature until the actual condition of the engine is determined, but it may well be worth considering the choice between the rebuild or replacement so I can start looking for the necessary item(s). It is not unreasonable that such a decision will need to be made at some point, even if I can eliminate the current knocking issue. I must assume that significant work will, at some point (and probably sooner than later), be necessary.
Whatever brief thoughts you would be willing to share at this juncture (I do not enjoy imposing upon others!) regarding rebuild vs. replace would be ôworth their weight in gold.ö
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mxmikie, regarding the torque converter bolts:
I have looked on this site and wikipedia.com and believe that a torque converter is a component of an automatic transmission; please correct me if I am wrong. I have updated my sig to include ôM/Tö which I believe is understood to mean ômanual transmissionö (which my Raider does have) and I apologize for the omission of relevant data! Thank you again for your efforts!
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Kevin, thank you for the excellent suggestion to look in the oil (and filter) for metal flakes. I cannot do so here in the wilderness (God Bless satellite modems!! á ;-) á ); I must take Rebecca the Raider into the shop to do so, which then raises the paradox of when to do so:
If I go in soon, I would be greatly relieved to not find any flakes. But if I find the flakes, then I dare not drive back to camp, so I would probably be wise to wait until all possibilities have been ôbrought to light.ö (I REALLY appreciate this forum! and this is also such a wonderful opportunity to yet further my recovery from a
severe case of PTSD! á ;-) á )
Blessings and THANK YOU ALL again!,
Richard Fairbanks
