Replaced Head Gasket - Knocking??

Hi all.

Replaced the head gasket on my 94 3.1 Lumina APV and after I jumped the battery (it completely drained) and started it, it sounds like one of the cylinders is knocking. I turned the van off almost immediately; didn't know if I was causing damage to the internals. Almost as if it's hitting something inside the engine somehow?

When taking the top down, I made sure to keep the pushrods in their proper order, reseating them and torquing them down per the Haynes manual I have that lists the torque readings. I didn't let anything fall into the cylinders as I put it all back together, so I'm lost. Also rechecked the spark plugs (a couple of them are fouled, no doubt from coolant getting into the chambers which caused me to do this entire project) and a few of them aren't in the best condition. Cables are plugged in tight as well.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, and I already have a bad feeling I'll be tearing it down again.

Thanks, and cheers!

Sure it's not just the typical 3.1 piston skirt rattle/knock, maybe aggravated by being torn down and not running for a while? You put new oil in it, I guess? it doesn't sound like you let it run long enough to build oil pressure...did it seem to run smooth aside from the noise?

Sure all the pushrods were properly seated in the lifters?

You weren't using the specs for a Lumina car were you? The 3.1 in your van is different than the one in the cars. Cars use the vin-T, multiport injection, DIS, etc.. and uses zero-lash rocker arms. Your van uses the vin-D, throttle body injection, distributor, etc.... and uses old style ball and pivot rocker arms. Here is a link to the proper proceedure on your van's engine, and as you can see, there isn't a torque setting for the rocker arms.

http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBroker?ForwardPage=/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/1b/e5/e2/0900823d801be5e2.jsp

Thanks for the replies, guys!

My 3.1 APV Haynes book says an additional 3\4 turn past 0 lash for the rocker arm bolts, if I recall correctly. I went by the sequence listed in the book (appears to be roughly the same as the link you provided rich). I placed the rods back in while I still had the intake manifold back off (figured I'd do it then rather then play with messing it up after the manifold was back on).

I think I just might pull both valve covers off and give the rods and rocker arm bolts a quick one-over.

Thanks again guys, and if you have any other ideas, lemme know :)

to be safe, I'd go back over to make sure you did the right ones on the correct go-around. That proceedure is a PITA, and it's easy to get them mixed up. It's possible you have a collapsed lifter too, so make sure they are all tight when they should be before changing anything.

Wow, THAT was an adventure. I think I had half my body in the engine cavity at various times! Dropping parts and tools behind the engine can be an...exciting thing to do.

The knocking was cylinder 5's exhaust rocker arm not tightened down correctly. Looks like I did miss one, it seems. No apparent damage to the lifter that I can feel, and the rod looks to be fine and not visibly bent that I can tell.

I feel pretty good having changed the head gaskets, intake and exhause gaskets and the other little various things that goes along with it. I was surprised that the exhaust manifolds didn't have any gaskets originally.

The advise and postings through-out this forum have been a huge help, and I stop in here at least once a day for new posts to absorb. More info makes me happy. I love being able to do a lot of this myself without having to take it into a shop.

You guys are the best!