I have a 4 dr '69 Valiant 100, 225, 140k miles. It started ticking two weeks ago and quickly progressed into a louder knock. The other day I was out and the knock got worse, and the car STOPPED. I couldn't start it, fully charged battery and it couldn't turn the motor. About 5 hrs later (AFTER a TOW of course) I was able to get it running again, pretty quietly, but as soon as you put a load on the motor (put it in gear), or hit the gas (in park or neutral) the knock starts again. It kind of sounds like a motorboat. I know it's not the torque converter, I have another parts car with that problem. I've been told it could be a bearing on the crankshaft, a wrist pin, and something else I can't remember. I'm an amateur mechanic. PLEASE HELP!!!

Start the motor, and pull plug wires one at a time (making sure to insulate yourself so you don't get shocked!) and try revving the engine each time to see if the knocking stops. If it stops knocking when you pull one of the plug wires, you have now confirmed that it is a rod knock and you know which cylinder it's on.

THEN what...

after that you pretty much have to diagnose what happend to make it knock. for sure you'll have to pull the pan, while the pan is off grab onto each connecting rod and see if you can wiggle it up/down, if you can the bearings no good, next step is to pull the caps and see if the crank is scored, if it is, you're screwed prettymuch, run your fingernail over it while looking for scratches, if a scratch grabs your nail then the crank has to be re-ground, if it dont you may be able to emry cloth it out and just reinstall new bearings as well as bolts

How was the oil pressure in this engine? was it ever run without oil or on a extremely low amount of it?

It's probably a rod bearing, and if you ran it long enough that it locked up, it has probably scored the crank. If it has, it's entirely possible that having the crank turned 20 or 30 thousandths undersize to remove the scored metal will fix it. That's machine shop territory, but it's totally common. The rod(s) may also have been damaged, since when a bearing spins in the rod journal, it generates intense heat. A quick eyeball check for that is to look at the big ends of the rods and see if any have that bluish coloration that results when metal is heated. If so, that rod probably belongs in the trash. Fortunately, used 225 rods aren't exactly hard to find. The long and short of it is, unless a bearing just barely spun (not likely given your description of what happened), you'll probably have to pull the motor and take it to a machine shop.

_________________
Everyone driving slower than me is a moron. Everyone driving faster than me is an idiot. With all these morons and idiots on the road, I can't get anywhere!

I would just go find a good running slant for sale and slap it in. They can be found anywhere from free to 200 bucks tops.

Sounds like a 'classic' spun connecting rod bearing.
Either rebuild the engine or find another to swap-in.
This bearing is deep inside the engine and most likely looks like this at the moment:
DD

Luckily all is not lost, I have another Slant Six (out of the SAME YEAR CAR as well) to swap in there. I'm getting rid of my parts car in a while and I didn't really wanna send it away with a good motor in it. If you know of anyone near Vancouver, B.C. who wants parts for a '69 Valiant 2-door. They should contact me... soon

Actually, that's probably the best idea yet. I'd do that too, now that he mentions it. (I just sold a good running slant six for $400! Does that mean I ripped the guy off? I thought it was a pretty good deal for him when I sold it. Well, I did pull the motor out of my car for him. I guess that's worth a little something.)

MTV, are you going to use the engine mounts from your '69?

I don't know just how good the mounts are, but if anything I'd probably hang on to the pass. side mount. Those are hard to find up here... and because of that, they're expensive

Try finding a passenger side mount for a slant six B body....The books list the wrong part # at every store I went to. I would have bought 2, except the store I finally found it at could only get one, and it was non returnable! Ended up being around 20 bucks...

heh...typical. the passenger side mount is the one i need. do you know if lordco or any of the other local parts places have em?

Yeah, Lordco did have ONE for me Angry, however not my local Lordco... the one in Coquitlam, another hour away.

good to hear...good to hear. fortunately we've got an account with lordco so i won't have to do any running around for the mount. that '69 you're parting out wouldn't have an 8 3/4 rear would it?