Vibration: L18: Annoying: Clutch / Pressure Plate / Flywheel?

[Cardinal Grammeter]

I've been driving for days now and w/o anti-freeze, I'm not losing water - at least at any appreciable rate.  I did buy a new Stant lever cap.

 

What is interesting is that every time I flushed the system, it got rusty again.  Again and again.  With the new radiator, the water looks drinkable.  Clearly the radiator was in really bad shape even though it didn't leak in the beginning. (Maybe it was so clogged, it didn't leak until some of the sediment worked its way loose.  NOTE:  pretty much the entire bottom tank was full of rust mud.  It came out easily when I removed the rad and flushed it out with garden hose.  But the amount was huge - like pretty much the entire bottom tank.)

 

And I had the 195* stat in it.  So with poor radiator cooling and hot stat, there simply may not have been enough cooled water to cool the engine which allowed pocket(s) of steam to develop.

[KoHeartsGPA]

All that sediment had to have come from somewhere...so ya new radiator was in order.

[flatcat19]

If it wasn't leaking a pocket of steam would be improbable.

 

 

And get that water out of your engine. Unless you want to fill the new one with rust too.

[Cardinal Grammeter]

Yes, I'm about to take the water out and put antifreeze in.

 

As far as the trapped air/steam.  When the old rad & 195* stat, I had water in the top tank of the radiator (no pressure in system due to loose cap, or ??? don't remember) and I could hear boiling in the block with engine running.  Slowly added water to top out the top tank, then it quickly pushed all the tank water out in a burp, thank then empty, filled again, burped again, and finally stabilized.

 

I'll ask the question here, but it probably should be a titled thread:  "Can you put an L20B water pump in an L18?"  I have the L20B rad and shroud, but my fan is too small for the opening.  The L20B has a fancy viscous clutch and bigger fan.  Of course, I just put a new water pump in.  But it looks like the L20B has the same gasket and bolts - they even give you a new bolt because the clutch traps the long thin bolt.  Of course much more expensive but it should cool like a bitch with the bigger fan and clutch.  And it would match my L20B shroud.

[Lockleaf]

I can't confirm on the L series, but FWIW the clutch fan pump and the non clutch pump are interchangeable on the Z series engines.

[datzenmike]

All L4 water pumps interchange. As for how much water they move, it's about the same. The clutch fan simply saves energy as most of the time the fan isn't needed. Start up until warmed up and any speed above 20-30 MPH the fan is just wasting energy being turned by the engine. The clutch simply slips when forced to turn faster than about 1,500 RPMs. 

[scooter]

Once I bought a reman alternator that was soo off balance inside it literally busted into pieces. Also I'm certain the flywheels are not balanced as well as the rest of the engine internals are. I balanced my flywheel and pressure plate and the rest of the engine and it doesn't vibrate things loose.

[Cardinal Grammeter]

Interesting conclusion about the L4 not being balanced.  What is interesting is that the 3-cyl 1.0 G10 Suzuki camp says that engine should be balanced if it is rebuilt.  Perhaps other engines are not balanced by the factory.

 

Kind of angry I didn't wait just a little longer to replace my L18 1974 radiator - now that the nice early brass ones are showing up on eBay for $102 shipped.  I would really have liked to keep it all original under the hood.

[flatcat19]

Who cares? As long as it's on the road, ya know?

[racerx]

Was steam coming out of the rad fins? My 65 mustang had pin holes in the rad and had to add water every week and did pressure no leaks, cardboard on the ground and no leaks and one day i noticed steam coming out of rad fins sure enough when i replaced w new rad no more steam and was not loosing coolant anymore. Also be careful about stats from autozone, cant belive happend twice bad or defective stats from autozone. I boiled it and was not opening up till 205 supposed to be like 180 degrees.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

I wouldn't worry about the balance of an L motor. Most of them were balanced to within pretty tight specs. If you mis-match rods or install aftermarket cast pistons, then sure, balance it.

 

L flywheels, that's another subject.

[racerx]

Have you done a compression check?  Make sure engine is operating temp and open the throttle wide open when you do the test and use a screw in type not plug in type.  Doing a compression check will determine if your engine is good.  Crank compression should be around 170.  Then you can also do a wet test.

[Cardinal Grammeter]

UPDATE:

 

MAJOR CAUSE was Alternator Front Drive Bearing loose in housing.

 

While alternator was a "new" (completely clean with all labels intact) by previous owner, it turned out the drive bearing was loose in the casting.  It had a huge amount of thrust clearance (at least 1/32") and also radial clearance. 

 

I took the alternator apart and the bearing was "rattling around in it's confines in every direction."

 

Finally got a cheapo Mitsubishi replacement and the majority of the vibration is gone (knock on wood.)  While there is still some vibration, it is a reasonably small level - a level I would never think twice about or mention.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Good to hear.

 

One mod you could do to the alternator bracket is to drill through from hole to hole so instead of having two small 8mm bolts holding the bottom of the alternator, you can use one large 10mm bolt with a lock washer and a nut on the other end. Those 8mm bolts are the weak link in that setup and I used to break them all the time in my 510's.

[banzai510(hainz)]

Come on now this is a 74 Datsun tin can not a Mercedes.

 

 

Mine shakes, rattle ,stinks,takes for ever to warm up. But I still love it. Its a Datsun thing

[Cheetahking]

 

Mine shakes, rattle ,stinks,takes for ever to warm up. But I still love it. Its a Datsun thing

 

Kind of how I feel most mornings these days.....

[Cardinal Grammeter]

Hey, my 620 is crazy solid w/o rattles except for the doors which drove me crazy until 30 minutes ago :thumbup:

 

I got some rubber hollow auto style adhesive back weather stripping and stuck 2" long pieces right up next to the door seal at the bottom of the bullet skin feature (only place with area to glue on to.  This was essentially a door bumper.

 

Now the doors DO NOT RATTLE.  When I go over bumps I can hear the tire rubber and other bushings doing their job.

 

I figure you truck is now worth $1000 more since it doesn't rattle.. :D 

 

(I've been fixing all the little things and I really like the truck a lot more - I didn't think that was possible.  Final challenge:  crud attracting steering wheel.  It's totally clean, but it pulls dirt of hands like a magnet.  I think I have to compound it out until it is glossy - then nothing should stick to it.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

You've just touched on a subject that I think most people totally overlook. When I go through a vehicle, especially one I plan on reselling, I take the entire interior out and clean it and then reinstall it with a zero-rattle-or-squeak policy. Same goes for the rest of the truck (suspension, steering, exhaust, etc) and I can prove that it makes the vehicles worth more. When I point out to the buyer that the vehicle is rattle free, they don't realize how important it is, but then a light goes on and they all of a sudden really appreciate it.

 

It's the small details that make a car or truck worth owning.

[Cardinal Grammeter]

YES about the rattles.  But how do you reassemble it with a No Rattle Policy?  I know with exhaust, you punch it around with your hand/fist.  But what about dash stuff?

 

When I drove a 2015 Charger, the absolute absence of rattles made my strongly suspect it had Mercedes tech in it.  Then I discovered it is built on the E-class chassis.

 

Seriously, driving my 620 now is like another vehicle - a much better one.

 

There is a serious buzz in the dash top metal near the windshield at the defroster vent.  It really flaps around since there is still vibration in the engine, but not nearly as bad as it was.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Very carefully. It is time consuming. Sometimes a small bend in a piece of metal or an additional bracket will solve a vibration problem. Sometimes a small piece of sound deadener. Sometimes a strategically placed tack weld will shrink the are just enough to pull it taut.