I have an 98 R/T with 130,000 and a knock in the engine.
I was hoping one day to put a second gen srt engine in but lack of time, knowledge , etc has led me to buying a new car altogether......

question 1)
any enthusiast out there living in southern california interested in my car? It runs... runs great actually. lots of minor superficial damage (not from hotdogging) from slow careless mistakes made by previous owner (exgirlfriend). also knocking noise that made me worry about its reliablity.

question 2)
any of you guys seem twice as good at deducing problems and solutions from descriptions alone; whereas several mechanics I've dealt with are meager at best... what is best and worst case scenario of cause and solution of engine knock. (i'm certain it was / is oil related) eats about a 1/2 to a full quart between oil changes when driven a lot and knock started about two months ago. I'd love to be able to salvage it, its a cool car and i'd love to put a real engine in it (have myself a lil sleeper) and drive it into the ground. Its been with me a long time and I trust it. But alas... could definitely use some tlc from a REAL professional.... and i dont know who to trust out here.

anyone's feedback would be greatly appreciated... junkyard would only offer like 500.00 lame since i could sell the new tires and battery and stereo for that alone.. poor car. surely one of you hard core enthusiasts can offer realistic suggestions that dont involve trashing my old friend. Thanks in advance for any help!
Andrew

 

where at in south cali?? i might be interested and my name is Andrew to weird...[&:] lol have any pics

 

los angeles area.
pix? yeah i'll dig some up right now; I should have some old ones, if not i'll take some more when i can be home during the day. brb

 

Sorry all my old pix are archived I'll repost with some tomorrow or the weekend for sure!

 

engine knocks generally come from the rod bearings....
if its a really loud knock then it is most likely a spun bearing.....if the knock is kinda faint, but you can still easily hear it, then it might just be a worn out bearing.....
another thing it could be is piston slap....this is usually caused by a weak wrist pin, or worn out rings...

the best thing you could do is drop the oil pan.....move around the rods and see if there is any play in one of them.....if there is, then it could be just a cheap $10 fix with new bearings

 

wow that's extremely specific, thank you!! I'm gonna look into that.. I'm not a mechanic, but I'll find someone who is!

 

piston slap also occures when the enigne is cold, but once it reaches temp the pistons expand removeing the clearance thus removing the slap.

 

see noone told me that well they said the wrist pin.. but im pretty sure its the worn out rings cuz im burning oil horribly

 

yeah it is constant as far as it is noticable regardless of the temp of the car. the only variation in the noise is the level of acceleration. at certain rpm's its more apparrent. has gotten significantly louder within a month or two. awhile ago , i started noticing somthing like this but very subtle and only when going up a long hill (about a 7 or 9% grade) in 5th gear. I dont know if its the same noise/rattle/knock that I hear now. but the sound now is a definite knock and considering that i just read about the same problems among other neon r/ts on this forum within a day or two. same mileage and everthing. must be common symptom at this engine life. this is all good stuff though, the input is very useful. if i can take this info to my mechanic and fix it for a reasonable price than i may not have to part with my car. I have a new ride but in my opinion my old neon is worth more to me than a paycheck. and if i get some extra money in the future it would be fun to modify it. (or worst case cenario get a decent price for it)

 

its probally a bad rod bearing...

1 way to check which rod is making the noise would be to pull off each spark plug wire...1 by 1...while the car is running....
it the noise gets quietier when you take off a specific plug wire, then thats the one with the bad bearing....
i would bet that it would be the #1 rod since that is the one that usually goes 1st