Alright, need some thinkers in here... Crank Pulley install fuggup...

[006]

About 8-9 months ago I took my car in to my ford buddy to replace all the bearings in my rear end.

When he was done, I figured I'd ask him to install my crank pulley since the car was on the lift and it would be easier than doing it that weekend myself as I'd planned.

He installed it for me and I was happy (made my life eaisier).

Since then, I've always had a rattle noise coming from the lower part of my motor at WOT..or generously on the throttle between 3700-5000 rpms. This rattle has also been pulling my timing like crazy. At first the car will feel strong, but the moment this rattle happens, my car feels like I've lost quite a bit of HP, and recent dynos showed that as well.

After all the research I've done so far, I was able to pinpoint that this rattle/vibration that kicks in between those rpms are harmonics based..meaning that they will only happen between certain rpms and the only thing left (after putting in new motor mounts which I also suspected to be the culprits..but weren't)

Anyways, I'm in the middle of swapping out my leaking 01 radiator and putting in a larger 03-04 Cobra radiator when I figured that I'll replace the March pulley and put in the stock one to see if that will resolve my problem.

When I took the bolt out, this is what I found:

Could this be the cause of my "rattle"??

I need some heads to tell me if I should yank the march and put the stock one in, or if I should put a new bolt on the march and put all back together.

Thanks in advance!

:beer:

 

[Un4GivN]

Aren't the crank bolts TTY? Is that silicone on the bolt?

 

[mustangman36578]

if your talking about the gasket maker stuff on the bolt nope its not the cause. you need to put that at the crank key or else you will have an oil leak right there.

 

[006]

Yes, TTY and I already have a brand new replacement sitting in a ford bag.

If anyone needs the part # btw, it's F5RZ-6A340-B

Silicone on the bolt? you mean washer? There is RTV on the washer.

....and there is some gray color grease on the inside of the hole..you can see traces of it on the bolt threads.

 

[mustangman36578]

it might be anti sieze on the bolt? and yes RTV on the washer is normal. if it is not put there then you will have an oil leak

 

[gmsux]

Looks normal. Try torquing properly and see how it goes.

 

[006]

it might be anti sieze on the bolt? and yes RTV on the washer is normal. if it is not put there then you will have an oil leak

I know that, but it should only be in the keyway.

I've circled where all the excess rtv was sitting. This also means that the washer was not sitting flush against the pulley due to the rtv underneath it.

Make sense? :shrug:

 

[mustangman36578]

maybe he just put too much RTV in the key way? i dont think that ways enough to mess with harmonics though. are you sure he had it installed correctly?

 

[mustangman36578]

yea didnt think about that... i would try cleaning it all up and then reinstalling it and see how it goes

 

[006]

maybe he just put too much RTV in the key way? i dont think that ways enough to mess with harmonics though. are you sure he had it installed correctly?

Yes he did install it correctly, but I did not see the silicone amount applied, until when I took the bolt and washer off.

 

[no_slow_svt]

dont think that has anything to do with your problem,

it sounds like your knock sensor are doing thier job, probably due to some detonation. and the noise you hear is probably the pinging sound that detonation makes.
what kinda gas have you been runing? how many miles are on your car? when is the last time you did a good tune up?

 

[Quadcammer]

A little extra RTV is not causing any problems when that bolt is torqued down to what amounts to 120lb ft.

 

[006]

Tune up is done regularly. I'm on top of it constantly. MAF and IAT are cleaned every 60 days if that gives you the anal scope of my maintenance.

91 Octane always (F'n California).

It did this with the 99 ECU, and it's doing it with the 01 ECU. It never made this noise before hand. It now has ~65K miles and this noise started about 8-9 months ago. (only in WOT while in 3rd and 4th gear)..and it never does it in 1st or 2nd.

It is not pinging. I've had pinging before and this is not it.

The noise comes from underneath the radio area and it's motor/drivetrain related, kinda to the "forward and bottom right" from the driver. I'd pinpoint it to be flywheel area or starter area (flywheel was resurfaced when I replaced my clutch, and this was a few months after the noise started, and the noise remains after it was resurfaced and new clutch, pivot ball, pilot bearing, and TOB put in). Initially I assumed it was my motor mounts, but I had them replaced and the noise persists.

Anyways, I took out the March pulley, cleaned the RTV off the washer and I put my stock one back in last night but I've not tested the car because I need to flush the old coolant out of the motor and put in fresh coolant and then burp the system before I can drive it.

 

[no_slow_svt]

hmm, the only thing that i had similar to that is a noise inside one of my cats, something must have rattled loose in there, and made a vib/rattle noise right at about 2300 rpms. and it only did it for about 200 rpms and only under a load. if i were sitting in my driveway and reved it, it wouldnt make the noise.
I chased it for months, till i got an off road X and it went away, thats the only way i found out what was doing it.

 

[mustangman36578]

do you have longtubes? maybe it is rubbing on something if you do. also may want to check your trans mount.

 

[Scottyk]

LOL thats kinda funny.. RTV is perfectly normal and the washer runs against the balancer not the crank so the extra RTV has nothing to do with it and is perfectly normal.. Alot of times people use antiseize on the bolt and crank when using a balancer install tool and that would be your gray/silver substance. Better check something else

 

[stang8762]

when i installed my march pulleys my bolt looked the same way , make sure you use loctite and a new bolt when re-installing

 

[cobraetti]

what March Pulley were you using? 1158?

 

[olgreydog7]

Theknok sensors simply detect vibrations, so if you have a strong enough vibration, it could set them off, causing the drop in power. I'd make sure the pulley is on correctly and try again.

 

[006]

Yeah, 1158

..and I already put the stock one back

For those who claim that they do not feel the seat of the pants power from a pulley, think again. I can actually feel that the car lost some oomph from removing the march pulley.

I did not get to test the car well enough (too much traffic), so I'll do a WOT run tonight and see if my problem is gone.