S13 SR20DET Clunking noise

[DriftVader]

Okay guys, so I bled my #4 cylinder lifters last week, and after that I was stilling having the ticking noise from my head. It did that all week till Friday, then it stopped doing the ticking noise and now it does a clunking noise and my motor will shut off if i don't give it gas. I took my valve cover off and there's no medal or anything in my head, and everything "looks" normal. If it was a piston or a piston ring or something on the bottom end, would my motor still run? I'm lost as to where to start to look at what to fix. Should I pull the head and check my pistons?

[Kingtal0n]

1. A video would help. get good audio.

2. Sounds like the camshaft removal/re-install may have gone wrong. Check for all yours guides and shims in place. Guides to the left, shims to the right, correct? You can not reverse them or the guides will break. (ask me how I figured that out)

3. Stethoscope to narrow down "clunking". Could be anything, flywheel/clutch related, balancer, accessories, rockers/springs, and like you said: bottom end related.

No dont start taking it apart without narrowing down the problem first. Especially if it still starts up. That will help with your diagnosis.

[DriftVader]

Just did a compression test. #1 155, #2 170, #3 155, #4 135. Started the car up with the vavle cover unbolted down, oil did seem out a bit, so i know oil is atleast squirting. Draining the oil right now, and gonna take off the oil pan to check #4 piston to see if i can see anything. And as for the removal of the cams last week, i did not take the cams out, just cranked it over till the cam lobes were out of the way of moving the rocker arm to get to the lifter. i didnt touch or move the guides or shim, as i know those are a pain in the dick to mess with. thanks for the help! il keep ya posted.