Noisy Iron Pukes

["Bruce Hevner" <scramblr@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Cam gears made a lot of noise, that's why I got it cheap -- previous owner
got scared of it! It finally blew a head gasket at around 120K. Another
>mechanic told me the noise was lash in the gears, but he'd never heard of
one breaking. He also said if they were replaced about 20K later it would
>sound the same. It was a temporary car for me anyway -- I drove it two
years then sold it. Noise was only noticeable at idle and low speeds (say
>under 30) anyway. 

>On April 4, 2005 mail@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> I think the Puke moniker came from how noisy they were when the mid
eighties hit them.
> The cam gears wore out quick and rattled like hell.
> Plus the pistons were loose in their bores. ABout one of the noisiest
engines going.
> A guy in the dealer I worked at sent out one and had it honed for .010"
pistons and put in a new cam gear set.
> When he dropped back in you couldn't tell it was running.
> Very smooth and very quiet.

They did have a problem with timing gear noise. One noise was the gear
moving back & forth in the block and could be mistaken for rod knock at an
idle. They also had a good bit of gear whine. Once again there were several
updates which eventually took care of the problem. The aftermarket gears
were Aluminum and came with a different oil tube which took care of the
whine. GM came out with a different thrust plate that allowed more oil to
the thrust area. That took care of the knocking. Many of these engines used
a vacuum pump which was hidden under the intake. That also made a good bit
of knocking noise which could be mistaken for engine knock.
If you did all the updates and took care putting them together they actually
were a pretty good motor. Of course it took YEARS for them to sort out all
the problems and fix them. 
Kinda like the 2.2 Chrysler. They had a LOAD of problems when they first
came out. Over the years fixed most of them,,,,
But that's another story,,,,
Bruce Hevner