[DeTomaso] Thus quoth the raven...(IE what's that tapping?)

Christopher Kimball chrisvkimball at msn.com
Thu Dec 16 23:22:15 EST 2010


I started up Pandora today (it was finally dryish outside) and took her out for a spin.  I gave her some hard acceleration in higher gears to listen for knocking, and all I heard was a slight tapping, as if a small screwdriver was being tapped against the block.  I was told that if I heard a knock I should turn the distributor a little bit clockwise until I could accelerate hard with no knock.  I turned it a little, but it didn't make much, if any, difference.  I continued doing this a tiny bit at a time until the car just didn't run well.  The little tapping was still there under all those circumstances.

I then rotated the distributor back to where it was (maybe even a bit further counter clockwise) and then when I punched it I heard the kind of ping/clack that I remember our old Chevy station wagon used to make when I would floor it (my dad called it "pinging").

I'm wondering if the slight tapping noise I'm hearing isn't really "knock" at all, but just the normal sound of the engine, but the louder sound I heard is the real knocking, and if I turn the distributor enough to eliminate the loud noise and live with the slight tapping noise I'll be OK.  I know hearing the actual knocking in an engine is bad news, and I don't want to mess something up.

Any comments?

Thanks (again),

Chris
 		 	   		  


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