New engine
 

Well, it appears this knock is only getting worse. From researching and posting over at quad4forums, it seems that this is a sign of the main bearings or rod bearings just starting to go.

So my question. When It finnaly goes, is an an engine swap something that can be done in the driveway somewhat easily? Any special tools needed? Could it be a weekend job

Well yes you can do it in your driveway. Air tools make it a whole lot easier. do you have an engine hoist to pull the engine. a torque wrench to properly torque everything. something to drain the coolant and oil into. jack and jackstands. Metric and standard long and short sockets. PB blaster. i helped caboose replace his engine in his alero in his driveway.

this may be a dumb question but could you drop the oil pan and put new main bearings in it if it has not let go yet?

yes, but the surfaces of the rod/crank are probably damaged slightly and may need polishing/machining before a new bearing can be properly installed and spec'd.

you can replace main and rod bearings from the bottom though..

thanks chris, i wasn't sure if that was possible on the LD9 but I know my uncle did it on his 350 v8 and has put over 100K on it since

Ya like JLw7123 said it can be done in a driveway it took us a weekend pulling the old motor out and putting the new one in.Pick up a Haynes manual at advanced or auto zone and go at it make sure to bag and label all the bolts trust me you wont remember where everything goes when you go to put it back together. Also take pictures of anything you think you might have a problem putting back together again and lastly there a tranny mount on the back pass side of the engine block it took us along time to figure out why the tranny and block wouldn't split apart. Feel free to ask me any questions if you get stuck with something

Haynes manual is a good idea.
Can be done in a day. Warranty on the used engine is recommended.
Can be a weekend job but be prepared for your patience to be tested as the first time everything doesn't usually go right.

These 2.4L engines go bad all the time, so if I were you I'd buy something else.... maybe an Alero with a 2.2L - but make sure the timing gets changed at 100k miles or it will have issues too. Much better engine though.

Really? Every shop ive talked to does not want to touch it. They say all say it cant be done with the engine in the car and recommend a new engine...

But ive got jacks, ramps, jack stands, air impact gun, and a huge assortment of sockets, as well as stuff to drain the fluids in to. Also have haynes manual and the power of the internet :D

I know 2.4s are known for this, but what can i do to prevent it?

You'll still need the hoist/cherry picker/engine crane and a leverer

Look on your local CL, might come across a deal. If I didn't live in an apartment, I would have bought one off CL already

Because they can't guarantee it will last, at all if done this way. Shops don't like partially replacing the internals of an engine.

Don't run it low on oil. There's a big debate going on on JBO about what the root cause is of bearing failure. But as long as there's enough oil, it will be fine. My stock engine still has over 250,000 miles on it with no signs of bearing failure.

But those cant be the stock bearings?

i know i got 210k miles on mine completely stock and everything's still running good (knock on wood)

of course they are...

People switch to the Quad 4 oil pump to increase pressure, and lower the oil pickup, but that doesn't really address what is the true cause of #3 bearing issues.

Im talking original bearings.

So whats the cause of the #3 bearing failure then?

anyone have links to the 2.3 oil pump swap?

Yes, they're original. Why wouldn't they be? You must have some seriously misguided notion that every LD9 has rod bearing failure. The only ones who have had it either had oil breakdown or ran the car with hardly any oil or were otherwise poorly maintained.
I said it's being debated. There's no way to absolutely know what causes it, EXCEPT THAT RUNNING IT ON LOW OIL WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN. People have done band-aid solutions like the 2.3 oil pump swap that increases the output of the pump.

You really should get on www.j-body.org, as they have ALL the information you could ever want about this engine on there. The majority of people on Aleromod have 3400s, and an even smaller amount of people actually dive into the internals of any of the 4-cylinders; whereas on JBO, everyone has a 4 cylinder.

2.3L Oil Pump Swap

So long story short it if it only knocks when its cold then the bearings cant be done yet so anybody have a guestimate as to how long they will last? And when they do go what will happen?

Engine will seize, rod might break.

try a thinner oil first.

Use 0w-30, synthetic preferably, if it only knocks when cold.

EDIT: Actually, looking at your previous thread, the general consensus was simply piston slap. My engine always made a slap/knock type noise at cold. Pretty typical.

Need a video of your sound.

Will do asap. The thing that worries me the most is that i changed the oil again and it was glitter colored with metal shavings. And there was alot of metal shavings on the magnetic drain plug too. More than normal. Ive never seen metal shavings in the oil either...