VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1946-1948 wrist pin noise

My engine has some wrist pin rattle and I am considering tearing the engine down. Oil consumption is about 1 qt in 600 miles and some of that is due to rear main leak. No visible blue smoke when driving and engine sounds good other than the wrist pin noise. Compression is good in all cylinders and it carries good oil pressure. Question is does only the wrist pins wear or do I have to replace pistons and connecting rods also. If I have to do that I will install new rings too. I am trying to avoid a complete overhaul. Advice anyone ???

Dick

Well.....wrist pin noise might be helped with a heavier oil..And the car, depending on your age may outlast you. I drove a 47 chevy for 1000's of miles using 40 wt....just overhauled my 54 at the cost of around 1400. It can be pricey. Bill

Are wrist pins known for causing problems?

First, I know nothing!

In '53 I had a '41 2-Dr. At 16, I drove it veeery hard. At idle, on a quiet night you could actually hear the pins 500 feet away. Someone had put rings in it without replacing the pins. It was annoying but didn't hurt a thing. FWIW, it was by far the quickest stock 216 I ever knew of. It would beat a '50 Ford start to 70 consistantly.

In the day, it was very common noise if you "overhauled" a little 216 without replacing the pins. IMHO, forget about it and enjoy your car.

What harm is a little pin click with an otherwise pretty good 216? If you're going 600 miles on a quart with a rear main leak (also very common), you obviously have a pretty good 216.

It'll cost a lot more than it's worth to get rid of the clicking. You can easily spend over $4000 plus labor for machine work and parts for a rebuild. If it were me (and it ain't) I'd just enjoy it and ignore the clicking.

Others will disagree. To each his own.

Now, if it ain't a wrist pin click, look further.

It would say it depends on the year. My 32 had pins loose in the rod yet made no noise. The result was having to sleeve four cylinders as they wore into the cylinder walls.

It is a 47. So are you saying the pins could be worn in the rods or in the pistons or both ? Any way to tell w/o tearing down ???
I don't like the clatter at idle but as stated in prev post an overhaul can be expensive just to get rid of the noise.

Dick

I don't know of any way of checking short of taking it apart. My parts book list 37-53 as having piston pin bushings and I'm of the opinion that most likely that is where the noise is originating if it is indeed piston pin noise.

Does wrist pin noise change as the engine warms up?

As the engine warms up the noise does tone down a notch. No noise under load but seems to come back at each shift point but that might be because I let up some to shift.

It was very common for a Chevrolet engine to develope wrist pin noise by 40,000 miles, especailly if it had a lot of slow driving and idling.
The "pins" will make the most noist when there is very little oil being thrown up to the pistons. As an example when first starting the engine before reving it up. Also when the oil is hot and ""thin" - if you let it sit and idle the pins will cloc. Rev it and and bring it back down to an idle and they will get more oil and quite down for a while.
The pins were sold in oversizes. .003',0555" and .010" and in the later years the added a .0015". The mechaics likes the .0015" has little honing was necessary. The bushings get honed to accept the over size....see shop manual.
It was unusual to require the .010" over pins as that indicated the engine had been overhauled several times. If the car was driven a lot it may get two overhaul jobs but seldom more than that.

We always replaced pins on an overhaul job because with tighter bearings and ring drag the noise would be much worse.

Don't mean to be "nit-picky", Gene. But the .0555" should be .005(5)" I'd suppose (just a "typo", I'm sure ) What I was really going to relay was that I thought I had what I guess you'd call "piston slap", from a worn piston pin...But, it turned out to be a bend push-rod, instead. It was making noise at idle, but would go away as soon as you would step on the gas...Might want to check the push-rods first...Before you get to excited about the thought of worn "pins"..."Have a great day...!"...My usual response is, "Thank you, but I have other plans...!" lol ...Be sure to have one anyway...Kevin

I appreciate all the comments, info and advice. I'm still not sure what I am going to do. Motor runs good but that d--- rattle bugs me. Maybe if I think of the dollars needed to get rid of it I will let them rattle.

Dick

I subscribed to this post since I have the same wrist pin click when cold and sometimes at idle in my '47. After 3,500 miles and 2 years of driving,I've just learned to ignore it. I keep tabs on the oil level and oil pressure to make sure its healthy. I've had a lot of older mechanics tell me not to worry, just as some have said here. That's good enough for me until we tear the motor down some day in the future.

When we win the lotto.

IMHO, Daryl has it right. When these cars were common, a pin click was also very common. If it ain't hurting anything, why spend so much $$$$$????

Dick,

How do you know, for sure, that the click, rattle, whatever, is coming from the wrist pins? Could it be from something else entirely?

Charlie

I am sure he doesn't know for sure and neither do any of us. However, it is a well known problem particularly for engines that used high viscosity oil or additives to reduce oil burning. If the noise quickly gets progressively worse then he might consider doing something about it or at least having a closer look. If it stays about the same and is louder when the engine is first started then like a bunch of us just learn to tolerate it until you want to open your wallet.

Chipper,

You are right, of course, but these old 216s always rattle, click, etc. To get them to do anything else, quieter let's say, the only effective way is to throw a blanket over them. Well, one that sits on top of the rockers, in any case.

I would drive it until I couldn't stand it any more or until it busts, whichever comes first. Then overhaul, rebuild, or junk it for a 235 or â„¢61 with hydraulic lifters.

Wrist pin click, piston slap, rod bearings a beating and a-framing, rockers sounding like a diesel, et at, are normal for a 216. Ignore the noise and have fun. It is what it is.

Charlie

Chipper,

You are right, of course, but these old 216s always rattle, click, etc. To get them to do anything else, quieter let's say, the only effective way is to throw a blanket over them. Well, one that sits on top of the rockers, in any case.

I would drive it until I couldn't stand it any more or until it busts, whichever comes first. Then overhaul, rebuild, or junk it for a 235 or â„¢61 with hydraulic lifters.

Wrist pin click, piston slap, rod bearings a beating and a-framing, rockers sounding like a diesel, et at, are normal for a 216. Ignore the noise and have fun. It is what it is.

Charlie

So Charlie, now you are doing blank postings or what?

I can't believe it. Charlie is at a loss for words!

Ya....ain't it great?!!

I'll drink to that!

Charlie probably just forgot what he was going to say......

......or is that called a "blank stare"????

Sorry, 'bout that "pals" (JD, Chipper and Ken, et al) and but I ain't through quite yet. (Did Roger Dangerfield and I had something in common or what?)

Look, I tried to post my excellent, well thought out and right on point comment twice but it didn't go through. Waylaid? Maybe. I think the monitor may hate me. Or something. Mercy!

Anyway, what I was going to say - the short version (you're welcome)- is that, given that rattles, pinging, slapping, and a-knocking is common to even a brand new 216, I would drive it until something failed or I couldn't stand it anymore. Whichever comes first.

Then, I would overhaul or rebuild or toss it in favor of a 235 or 261. See?

Okay, what is so bad about that comment? Please, that's a rhetorical question.

Best,
Charlie

Now let's see if this one goes through.

I knew Charlie wasn't done. Further, I agree with him on the pins. Let 'em click and keep driving it!