The Derretta, 1994 base with some attitude.

[Money pit Beretta]

Dreaming of a pan like that.

[whiteretta]

Sadly, I'm dreaming of a better running engine...

It fired up and ran great first start. After backing it out of the garage, at low RPM's the engine started growling, at higher RPM's sounded like marbles. After a minute or two, the mid range RPM's gained a tapping sound from the engine. Still idled great, and was still able to move it around a little, even enough to at least take a short drive around the block and wash the layers of dirt and grease off.

[3X00-Modified]

Too bad your not closer. You need a real engine built.

This is why I never like trying to replace bearings on a crank in the car... Sometimes it just doesn't work out right, OR worse off there is something wrong with the crank that just destroys the next set you put in.

[90GTZHO]

Jon that comment from you makes me nervous now about my work...

Sorry to hear your engines causing problems. I hope your able to get it fixed soon.

[3X00-Modified]

Totally different situation Geoff... I did not have my 3500 crank ground or polished when I just built my motor... it was not needed because the bearings that came out were in good condition. When you replace bearings on a motor that destroyed a set then there is always risk the new ones will end up the same way if it was the crank itself that caused the damage, OR an issue with oiling to the bearings that caused it. It's hard to catch all that stuff when you just pull the pan and do them. You had the motor completely apart and fully cleaned and did a stand assembly, you'll be fine as long as you used assembly lube.

[whiteretta]

I've found a few low mileage 3400's in my area, two under 90k on them for $500. I just need to go pick one up and transfer all my pretty parts and go fast goodies to a low mileage unit after a gasket refresh. Maybe I'll just pull the engine and start over again, with the engine out of the car. Lots of options at least...

Everything is fixable, maybe it's a blessing in disquise as well. At least I got the suspension taken care of this year, that was my big issue I'd always wanted to resolve.

It'll all get figured out, still it's a setback, but the car has been through worse!

[whiteretta]

So the car is idling high, but when I was using the old FFP underdrive pulley I increased the idle to compensate for the undercharging, so now I have to put it back to factory spec. The engine noise doesnt seem to come back until the engine warms up though.

I'll put my factory idle specs back into the ECM tomorrow and see if that takes care of my really high idle.

[3X00-Modified]

Are you sure your not hearing piston slap? I mean it does sounds similar to rod noise but it is audibly different.

The idle should also not be any higher than it was previously... Changing the pulley back wouldn't make it any higher than it was before so if it is in fact higher than anticipated I would look for a VAC leak somewhere.

[whiteretta]

Reset my idle to the factory idle specs, and changed my oil again, then let it run through the warm up cycle. It didn't sound nearly as bad, but I decided to let it cool down and take it for a driver tomorrow. Maybe I got a bad jug of oil? I guess we'll find out...

[3X00-Modified]

Oil wouldn't do that... But kinda late to ask now but was the oil all dirty with metal flake? I'd expect almost none to come out of that engine since you only did bearing's and hand no machine work done and the rings didn't need to be broken in.

[whiteretta]

Yep, it did nothing. The oil didn't have any metal flakes in it either, I made sure to check when I drained it.

I'll just pick up a low mileage engine, change the intake gaskets, and set the current engine on a stand in the corner of the garage.

[whiteretta]

Small update -

The bottom end is going out in the 3400, but I'm not butt hurt over it. The new plan is to 3500 swap, and lucky enough for me, TylerLP lives close and is helping with the swap too. The game plan is to re-use all of my go fast goodies, like the cam and headers, along with the TCE 65mm throttle body. Since the engine will be out, I'll finally be upgrading the torque converter to a 2375 stall Dacco converter. I'm pretty glad I picked up my tuning software last year now!

[Money pit Beretta]

Damn that is bad news!

[CorvetteBeretta]

These cars will be the death of us all lol

[whiteretta]

You aren't kidding, haha.

The car hasn't been reliable for about four years now, so I'll do whatever it takes to make it right. Time is no longer a factor!