I need help!! had to tow car home.....

[tpabayflyer]

I was driving my 87GN easy on the highway and heard a ticking sound. It would change with rpm and I thought I had broke a rocker arm and itwasmaking the noise. I was not sure where the noise was coming from but it was not a deep rod knock at all. It sounded like valvetrain noise and the car felt like it was running on 5 cyl. oil pressure was normal and no oil leaks or any extenal damage. I stopped the car on the highway and gave it a quickcheckand figured I would drive it to the next exit and shut it down.I made it about another mile and it shut off byitself and did not restart. It cranks over normally and seems to have normal
compression. I had tocalla tow truck and had no time look at the car as I hadto rush out of town untilfriday. I willpull the valve covers as soon as I get home and checkit out.

Of course I had justspent the better part of 2 months doing some upgrades thatincluded
JC TE-44
HV timing cover
F-body rad
external oil cooler
new waterpump
new edelbrock timing set
scanmaster

I had about 80 miles on the car since doing the upgrades and everything was fine. I have 132Kmiles on the car and I am the originalowner. Is it possible the new oil pump was too much for the lifters and I had one collapse???Cold oil psi was 70 psi at startup with 10w-30oil and would settle to30-40 at a hot idle??
Is it possible the crank ignition got funky on me and broke??? I would have to assume that there is no spark as the car would not start. If anybody can shed some light on this I would really appreciate it . Thanks in advance. TBF

 

[b231v6]

Check your crank sensor.

 

[salvageV6]

Check the crank sensor first and the cam sensor second.

 

[tpabayflyer]

Thanx a bunch guys.....where exactly is the sensor located????
is it in the harmonic balancer????? I checked out the cam sensor visually and it looked just fine. The noise I heard was a rythmic tapping and a few random bangs here and there, that was a little strange??? If the crank sensor is toast, whichI hope it is, where can I get a replacement?? junkyard??? do the other buick 3.8 have the same setup??? I am not sure what to look for....
doI look in the area where the cannon plug is down by the lower timing cover area???? does this sound like a normal way the cranksensor fails???anybody have this happen to them??? I will get home fri night and take a look at the car....
I am pretty worried as I spent over $1,000 on all these new components and it was pretty tough to convince my wife I needed to do all this stuff and now the car is inop...... I'm in some deeeep doo right now ........ thanks.. TBF

 

[Fuelie600]

Does the cam sensor spin with the motor? Maybe a broken timing chain or tensioner. Brian

 

[tpabayflyer]

Ijust replaced the timing chain with an edelbrock doubleroller so I don't think it would break? I justspent an hour searching crank sensor problems and It sure sounds like that is what happened to me........ I will check it out tomorrow.. thanx for the help guys... I will post an update bysaturday.. TBF

 

[Fuelie600]

Did you leave the factory chain tensioner in place? Hope not, or that could be a problem.

 

[Red Regal T]

Seeings you just R&Rd the timing cover, sounds like the crank sensor was coming in contact with the reluctor ring. Hopefully that's your problem.

 

[redman]

some times that clicking sound you here is when the crank sensor was moved or became loose mabe it is hitting the fins on the balancer seeing how you were just down in that area ,if you check with a otc or scanner look for rpm signal when cranking over and no signal no crank sensor.

 

[Razor]

Maybe your balancer loosened?? and moved forward not letting the crank sensor see the notches.

Pull the cap on the cam sensor and spin the motor. Make sure it spins.

HTH