03/10/08

My engine was making a weird noise. It was just recently balanced and assembled. All of the internal components are new. It is not making a knocking noise but it concerned me so I disassembled the engine to find that my rods are magnetized to my rod caps. Is this a problem and what is causing this and how do I correct the problem? Tony Tortorici Gainesville, Ga

Tony,

Hi, thanks for the question. The magnetism is probably left over from re-sizing the rods. Some equipment uses a magnetic table to hold the rod and cap flat to surface the sides. Normally, this isn't a big deal. The way to de-mag them is to use a powerful magnet, such as used for crack checking, and slowly pull the magnet away from the parts with the magnet turned on. As for the noise I can't really see how that would have anything to do with the magnetism. Make sure you don't have any areas in the short block that are touching the rotating assembly such as a windage tray, girdle, oil pan, etc. Hope this helps.

Jay Roeder

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