Alright y'all. Was teaching my wife to drive stick, she somehow managed to way over rev it in neutral. Was only at the top end for a short second, but it made the most awful noise, like something broke loose, shook like an earthquake, metal squeal, then died. Now when I turn the key the starter tries to turn over. Gets about 3 turn overs then make a horrible grinding noise, sounds like the teeth on the starter are grinding on something. Just happened today, so haven't had a chance to dig into it yet. Any ideas what I'm looking at?

 

Sorry, 97 4.2 2wd manual

 

Kudos for teaching her how to drive stick and her motivation to want to... more women need to drive stick, but are afraid, or make up excuses so they can be a two pedal queen.

Anyhow, back on topic... it almost sounds like something grenaded inside. By chance, do you know if it was using coolant? How does the oil look?

 

Wasn't using coolant. Replaced lower intake manifold and gasket 2 months ago, so all that was good. Used oil though, about a quart and a half a month. Had oil pressure issues, once warm pressure disappeared at idle. Nobody on here wanted to believe that because I hadn't replaced the stock sending unit, but I believe it. Ticked hard when the needle dropped. Also had a dull rattle (I use rattle in place of knock because it was faster than what most would consider a knock, but it sounded like a muffled, high rpm knock) that I could hear loudly under light load, mid-high rpm conditions. conditions. Could also feel it really well in the shifter

 

It was ready to go, she just finished it off.

Go to the boneyard and find one out of a 99 or newer.

You can't overrev it, it has a RPM limiter.

 

In theory, no, you can't. But you definitely can rev an engine beyond its capabilities, without hitting the limiter, if it's already tired and weak. Ask me how I know lol

 

Oh you're saying the 99+ have a rev limiter?

 

And I agree, it was ready to go. That's what I told my wife. I'm not even mad, knew it was coming some day

 

They all have rev limiters. I'm saying 99+ for the internal improvements.

 

If the engine popped because it was revved in neutral under no load is wasn't long for this world anyway. The first time you really got into it I bet it would have let go. Like glc said, get a good low mileage one from the bone yard and drop it in. For a few hundro you'll have a good motor in place of a time bomb.

 

Quick question about this. I haven't had a chance to tear it down yet, so I'm not 100% sure what gave up. Is there any chance that it's something outside of the engine, like something seized in the clutch? Might be a stupid question, but I'm blindly getting a junkyard engine this weekend because it's 1/2 price weekend. Just wanna know if there's a chance that it's not the engine

 

Throw it into neutral and turn it over by hand. Pulling the plugs will tell you a lot about what's going on and make it easier to turn.

 

Half price weekend at LKQ U-pull yard this weekend, went yesterday and scored a motor from an 07 and a hitch for 150 bucks. Can't beat that. Gonna start the tear down of mine tomorrow

 

You will have to transfer some parts from the old engine to the new one, electronics are decidedly different.

 

Yeah, anticipated that. Gonna replace every gasket I can but the heads, and swap all my intake over to it.