Ball (???) fell out of intake when removing head to investigate knocking noise.
 

Hey there guys... new member here... first forum post EVER so bear with me. I drove home from work one day, no problem. drove it about 50 miles to get home. stopped to fuel up, stopped to visit my newborn nephew, then parked it at home. ran fine besides a small valve tap that had been occurring for a lil while. Fired it up at 6am the next morning and there was a violent rapping coming from the head. kinda sounded like machine gun fire. figured it was something to do with the valves so i proceeded to tear into the head (excellent time to install my engnbldr 261 rv cam..right??). left the intake attached to the head when i moved it off the block and a small metal ball fell out of the intake. i am assuming that it was bouncing off one the valves. i am taking it tomorrow to get the head/valves checked and planed. i will attach a picture of the ball so that you can see it. i just need some ideas on where it might have come from so i can replace whatever is broke. there was also a black piece of carbon (maybe???) just sitting on the #2 cylinder. thanks in advance guys. btw... 22re motor, 185k, 5speed, 2wd, pacesetter headers, flowmaster exhaust, cai.

Did some jokester drop a ball bearing into your valve cover/intake? Does the PCV valve possibly have a ball bearing in it? A oil galley plug.....some engines use ball bearings...others will know about this engine and if the location of one could be causing what you describe.

Can you use paragraphs in the future to make your post easier to read? Thanks.

BTW, welcome aboard.

Wow, never heard of such a thing, does it look as though it was not originally spherical but instead hammered round being in the engine?

https://www.yotatech.com/[IMG]http:/...928_215052.jpg[/IMG]here is a picture of the "ball" that i found

sorry... having trouble posting the picture...

:facepalm:

use photobucket

ok... i think i got the picture to attach now. sorry... i will put in paragraphs from now on. like i said... first forum post ever.

here is a picture of the other side... i dont know how someone could have put something into my intake.

here is a video on youtube that i found... my truck made the same freaking noise. the guy that posted it said that he had dropped a bolt and it found its way into the #4 cylinder. my #2 is the one that was a little banged up.:dunno:

You say that you pulled the head with the intake still attached, how can something fall out unless it came out thru the TB. Are you sure this wasn't sitting on top the engine and fell off? In your last post are you saying that your #2 cylinder was damaged from this. So then I would assume that you would find it in the #2 cylinder.

Just asking for clarification so someone here maybe able to help you figure this out.

I do believe that the PCV valve has a ball bearing in it, sure sounds like it when you shake it. Is PCV valve near # 2. Good luck.

Hans

i had removed the upper plenum and the throttlebody. the ball fell out of the lower intake section. Im going to look into that pcv valve. thanks for the suggestion

well guys... got the head rebuilt... replaced one intake valve and seat and all the exhaust valves. got it all back together and still knocks. took the oil pan off and replaced the crankshaft and rod bearings even tho they still looked fine. wrist pins looked good too. anyone think it could be the clutch/flywheel?
btw, replaced the pcv valve but it wuz still good. still no idea where that ball came from???

just wanted to let u guys know that i am 90% sure that the ball came from the EGR valve. i am under the impression that a bad egr valve can cause valve tap. i am going to replace it tomorrow morning after the part is shipped and see if that was my problem.