1995 K1500 5.7 / 350 TBI Engine Knock/Other?

[PlayingWithTBI]

Took a closer look with the tc out of the way and saw the crack in the plate going from bolt to bolt. Not exactly sure how this could have happened from daily driving, but at least we have an answer to the noise now!

I've seen that with multiple vehicles, where somebody didn't seat the TC properly (normally 3 steps), and tried to bolt the bell housing in place by torquing those bolts. When you put the trans and engine together, they should go together easily with a little free play between the TC and flex plate. If not, you wanna check the TC for proper position.

The 1st one I screwed up on was a 66 Ford Fairlane 6 cylinder and a C4. The most recent was a Mitsubishi Eclipse my daughter bought from an idiot who lost the alignment dowels AND forced the trans in place. Glad that POS was sold after a boneyard engine, timing belt, oil pump, alternator, straitening the core support (after she went 4 wheeling in a corn field), muffler, exhaust pipe, front valance, etc.

But, I digress, here's a few pics of how we straightened the core support - it was fun!

I drilled and bolted D-Rings, in the slab, on one end of the shop to hold the rear end.

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Hooked to the rear of the car.

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Ran a chain from one post the another in front.

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Then, with a 1-1/2 Ton come-a-long and a 2" strap winch, applied all the pressure we could, hit the crease on the core support, bang! It popped back it place!

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Sold it to a friend of hers for $2K, he ran ran it for a couple years before the engine finally gave up the ghost. I don't think I wanna flip another vehicle. My son and I split a whopping $500 in this endeavor - whoopee!

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[Erik the Awful]

Those were such beautiful cars - especially the Spyders - with a lot of performance potential, but every story I heard was about how Mitsubishis were monumental piles of crap. I haven't wanted one since.

 

[PlayingWithTBI]

Those were such beautiful cars - especially the Spyders - with a lot of performance potential, but every story I heard was about how Mitsubishis were monumental piles of crap

Yeah, it had the Dodge 4 cylinder in it. The water pump was driven by the timing belt. To say it was gutless is being nice.

 

[Schurkey]

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Common as dirt. An almost-but-not-quite epidemic problem with the one-piece seal flexplates on small-blocks.

Maybe a big-block problem, too, but there's fewer of them.

The 5.7L Vortec core engine I bought was pulled from the vehicle because of a "rod knock"; once they got it out they saw the flexplate was cracked just like yours--but worse. The center piece was totally loose from the outer; there was even a little play due to the crack. The crack was so ragged that the center wouldn't actually separate from the rest, but it wobbled around some.

 

[MisterPie]

I've seen that with multiple vehicles, where somebody didn't seat the TC properly (normally 3 steps), and tried to bolt the bell housing in place by torquing those bolts. When you put the trans and engine together, they should go together easily with a little free play between the TC and flex plate. If not, you wanna check the TC for proper position.

The 1st one I screwed up on was a 66 Ford Fairlane 6 cylinder and a C4. The most recent was a Mitsubishi Eclipse my daughter bought from an idiot who lost the alignment dowels AND forced the trans in place. Glad that POS was sold after a boneyard engine, timing belt, oil pump, alternator, straitening the core support (after she went 4 wheeling in a corn field), muffler, exhaust pipe, front valance, etc.

Alright I'll keep that in mind when I'm putting it back together. Hopefully if I do this right I won't have to deal with this again haha. That must've been a wild experience with your son

Common as dirt. An almost-but-not-quite epidemic problem with the one-piece seal flexplates on small-blocks.

Maybe a big-block problem, too, but there's fewer of them.

The 5.7L Vortec core engine I bought was pulled from the vehicle because of a "rod knock"; once they got it out they saw the flexplate was cracked just like yours--but worse. The center piece was totally loose from the outer; there was even a little play due to the crack. The crack was so ragged that the center wouldn't actually separate from the rest, but it wobbled around some.

Wow that's insane . It's something that sounds a lot worse than it actually is. The moment I started my truck up that morning I figured the engine might be total scrap, but it's nice to find out it's something else lmao.

Any other tips on putting it back in properly? Seems simple enough, but I'd rather not be doing this for a second time in a few months haha

 

[Schurkey]

As said--seat the torque converter fully.

Assure the flexplate is aligned with the crank properly. Years ago, this wasn't important except on 400 small-blocks, and 454s, but with the one-piece-seal blocks it's now important on all of 'em.

Maybe use blue Loctite 242 on the flexplate-to-crank bolts.

 

[MisterPie]

Alright, new flexplate is in and seated flush against the engine side. I verified this by spinning the crank until I was certain the entire plate was seated correctly all the way around. I then removed the bolts and put some blue threadlocker on them and hand tightened them back in and gave them all 1/4 turn with a ratchet in a criss cross pattern. Then I torqued them in the same pattern to 75ft lbs. Then I rotated the crank again to verify that the flexplate was still flush with the end of the shaft. Torque converter was seated correctly as well.

I slapped everything back together and took it for a test drive. Looks like we're back in business! Just in time too, I move in about a week

Thanks again for all the help guys, hope she holds together for a while before the next repair