smoke in the valve cover, and a clank clank clank SR

[TUnity2]

i think my head is completely fucked, either my timing chain tentioner exploded or my oil pump went out. either way i had smoke inside my valve cover when i opened my oil cap.

The noise stared very moderate and i wanted to make it home at least from work (my cell was dying and i didnt know how much longer i had). at first it idled perfect and only did it when i applied medium throttle, then it started to do it a little harder, then it even did it off throttle, then it woudlnt even idle when i pushed in the clutch, right around this time i made it home. i have a full oil level, i opend my oil cap and smoke was coming out the valve cover.

earlier, when there was barely a noise, i pulled the valve cover. the chain was very tight, like it should be. and now that i think of it, i had my friend bump the car over, and i should have had oil squirt everywhere, but didnt. so maybe its the oil pump is clogged or bad, but im not sure.

guess i wont be going to Galveston for the huge meet....

anyone have ANY suggestions?

EDIT this is a red top SR, moderate mods, running Valvalene 20w-50 oil and some lucas stabilizer.

[NIK90s13]

Do you have an oil gague, or an oil light? What did the show or read? Is there oil on the top of the cams? Pull the valve cover (again) Check the chain(again) for slack, or warn and broken guides/tensioners. With the valvecover off, chech for oil on the cams and head. That's a starting point.
With out hearing it (the knock) It's hard to say. I hope it's not a rod knocking!!!

P.S. No insult, but check the oil first.Make sure it has enough.If it's low you can get lifter rattel.

[TUnity2]

i checked the oil, i had more then enough.

and no i don have an oil presure guage and there is a light from the factory which didnt come on, im starting to think its the timing chain.

the chain was tight and im pretty sure its not rod knock because it only happens when throttle is apllied, rod knock would make the noise the entire time its running, right?

[NIK90s13]

Yea, the rod will always knock. All I can say is pull the valve cover and recheck the chain.
To bad it was'nt low on oil, that would have been to easy!!

[TUnity2]

tomorrow when it gets towed to my shop i will start ripping into it. hopefully the chain......

probably not rod knock.

[NIK90s13]

Keep me posted!!! Good luck!!!!

[fliprayzin240sx]

other than the noise, does it feel like its running fine? And no rod knocks arent on all the time. Sometimes you can only hear it when it gets to a certain rpm and it gets louder and goes up with the rpms.

[Nizzan4u2nv]

Smoke coming from the VC is usually a sign of bad rings. Bust out the compression tester.

[TUnity2]

OK so here is what i found. my compression was OK on cyls 1,3,4 but was about 15 less on cyl2, but after wet testing it by pouring a tiny it of oil in the cyl it evened up to the others. so this makes a possible spun bearing or maybe bad rings. the head itself from the top looks fine.

WE checked the timing and it was till dead on, so no jumped timing. but after pulling off the front case i realised that i could move the chain 20mm in either direction on the side opposite the tensioner, so im not sure how bad that is.

i drained the oil and i seemed like not quite 4 quarts came out , maybe 3, but then again i didnt remove the filter, but then again it isnt very big. i thought i had a bad power steering leak and thought thats what was all over my cross member, but it was probably an oil leak that i obviously didnt know about from my rear main seal, cause my front seal was OK, but if it was my rear main seal, woulnt my clutch have been slipping?

I pulled down the oil pan and the oil that remained was metalic and i found metal shavings in it and in the oil pick up, so im pretty sure i screwed somethign up, and if it was because i was low on oil, that just makes it my own damn fault. but if it was low on oil i dont know why it knocked even after i added a quart of oil (BTW i never got a good reading on th dip stick. there was either oil just on one side, or an oil line that was only on the outer edges of the stick, so i assumed somethign was up with the stick)

so the only thing left to do is to pull the head and check my pistons and valves.

also, it doesnt start, when i was driving it home it wouldnt even idle, if i pushed in the clutch, it would die. i probably spun a bearing or somethign along those lines. great right??

[Nizzan4u2nv]

Since you have the lower pan off, pull the upper pan and inspect the bearings.

[TUnity2]

i have come to the cunclusion it is probably a spun bearing on #2

[Maeda]

Sorry to hear about your loss.

[TUnity2]

me 2, now i need another SR.

[NIK90s13]

Sorry to hear it. You tried!!

[TUnity2]

UPDATE

I'm buying an SR long block, problem solved.

thanks to all for the help.