My '86 SBC made a grinding starter solenoid sound for the first time yesterday. Made it once, then never again and used all day. Today my son takes it out, it stalls a few times, when he finally gets it running he says it makes a strange knocking noise from the lower engine, starts to blow white smoke out back, stalls and won't start. Just a hard single click when you hit key. He gets it towed home. I come home check oil, water etc...all good. Try starting and it still clicks once. Rock car, tap starter..nothing. Finally it starts but it's rapping and knocking, I can't move it until I shift some cars. Shut it off, move cars, come back, cannot start. Only single hard click...battery strong. It's an '86 Monte SS...should I expect the worst?...i.e. rod, bearing etc?? Can't get near crank pulley too easily, and valve covers are really a ***** because of all the hoses etc. Any ideas??
Dead in the water? That leaves you wide open to boat anchor jokes but I'm so above that, but even still you throw a boat anchor in there and your dead in the water...
Extreme wild guess here and possibly the cheapest and easiest fix. Is it possible that the flex plate is cracked or the torque converter is very loose? The flex plate could make some wild sounds that sound internal and could contribute to the starting problem. Also a busted nose cone on the starter could be worth a look. Bob
sounds like time to drop the pan and look for metal bits. Could be a whole lot of things, white smoke is usally burning antifreeze. Rapping and knocking could be a bad piston, wrist pin or connecting bearing. I think your in for a rebuild of some kind
blowing white smoke is anti-freeze. Is it possible that you blew a head gasket and one cyl is now filled with water not allowing you to turn it over. Don't know abouit the noise unless its unrelated. Good Luck, Mike.
Good point on a water lock issue. Pull the plugs and see how it spins over. Have a helper watch for vapor out of the plug holes. We used to ferret out such problems by removing one plug at a time and starting the engine. The hole with the problem will emit a mist cloud of coolant. Bob
Left corner of the intake manifold maybe leaking and causing it to lock. Thats what happened to mine.
dead from the water maybe...sounds like you may be getting coolant/water in the cylinders somewhere. that will cause the smoke, could make it knock too, i dont know how many times id keep trying to run it...water does not compress, so if a piston comes up in the cylinder and theres too much water in there, it's like hitting a wall....somethins gotta give. pull all the plugs, get someone to watch while you crank it, see which hole the water sprays out of....or just pull the heads, you're gonna have to anyway...cracked head could be a possibility...but more often, its just the gasket
Is it still the original 305? They were notorious for spun bearings. I had an 84 SS. This is how I know. But if it's locking up hard, I've gotta agree with scottrich.
If it was head gasket, should'nt I see water in the oil? Oil looks fine. Could a starter problem be considered?
I have seen this too. Get some one to pressure test the cooling system. If it fails to hold pressure try to listen for where the pressure is escaping.
Like it has been stated earlier, plull the plugs and turn it over. I'm sure you'll find water escaping from at least one plug hole. r
The Jalopy Journal
