But need to understand fully what caused it. what i found was a unusal wear on the the rod bearings. 7 of the eight had wear down to the brass about a thumb width right at the base of the rod. only thing i can figure is maybe the previous owner was timed bad???? detonation??? I know that the cam was not degreed in but dont think it could cause this. valve events should not have been that far off. ideas and help please so i can fix the problem.

 

how many miles were on it??

 

less than 8k.

 

Photo of the wear? May not be the problem. If it was knocking like you said there would be more than a thumbs widthof wear. Thats not real uncommon if it has some miles on it.

 

clearances may have been to tight possibly.

 

OK some nice close up shots

 

http://s394.photobucket.com/albums/p...0205-10491.jpg
http://i394.photobucket.com/albums/p...0205-10481.jpg


best i can get with my blackberry right now. pic of the same rod but they all look this way with the exception of one and it appears to be starting the same pattern just not as bad

 

The bearings look like a classic case of failure to prime the oil pump before start up. I doubt thats causing your noise right now. Hard to tell without being able to mic the bearing. How was the oil pressure?

 

oil pressure was great. about 35lbs at idle and 60 under revs when warm. car only made noise when cold. I bought the car doing this btw. I also found some marks on the valve cover that indicate the backs of the rockers slighty rubbing them as there was some shiny spots on the covers and rockers. baffles are gone from the covers and the rockers were not hitting the top. just dont want the same issue 5-8k miles. really lost as i felt the noise was more top end but was a hard knock that i would describe as a rod knock but with electric ears it sure sounded like it was louder at the heads. any input is great. thanks for your time

 

If there were shiny spots on the rockers and valve covers that would pretty much tell you there is a problem that really needs to be corrected. As far as the cold knock I'd be checking piston diameter vs Cylinder bore. You could have some piston rock when cold from excessive clearance. What kind of Pistons? With things like that sometimes it's tough to find when you have the engine in front of you and nearly impossible via the internet. I had an engine run me ragged for a few days over a knock I couldn't find.