Thread: B15 SR20: Rod knock?

So I got a call earlier from my brother, who is driving my old B15 SE. He thinks he hears rod knock after driving it around a bit today. I got home and pretty much confirmed it...I think.

If it does turn out to be rod knock, can a non-RR SR be put in it's place? I ask because, I plan on putting a VE into my B13 shortly and the highport that is currently in there will be up for grabs. Now, I know the RR motor is a lowport, and I do have access to a lowport head if necessary.

Are we looking for trouble here? If it's too much of a pain in the ass then we'll just look for a replacement motor. But I would like to use what we have if possible.

It does indeed sound like rod knock, but only when accelerating under load. If you sit there in neutral and rev the car slowly, you can't hear it. It's most prominent in lower RPM's where there is more load on the engine.

Any ideas? HELP!

I would use the RR head, there are some emissions equipment that could cause you some troubles later on if you use the older stuff. IACV etc.

or you might be able to get away with replacing the bearing and clean up the crank and see if she holds up.

Just get the lowport out of the ser and do a head swap, or you could get a ve and throw the RR head on that block, and the VE head on the DE ser block.

A little modification, but in the end you get a VE with the 8cw crank, and the RR stays with pretty much the same bottom end it has always had. It would cost more to do this obviously.

Swap blocks, drive.

Ok, so VE bottom end w/RR head sounds like it might be the plan. No modifications necessary? I'm assuming that combo would add just a tiny bit of extra pep? (VE higher comp. pistons, right?)

I'm not a tuning guru or anything, but bumping compression and using a stock ECU can't be right, right?

Well stock ECU will be retained. So whatever will work with that.

I did a highport into a b15, if you bro's ride is an auto- you dont have a prayer. If it's a 5 speed, in theory it can be done but not easily - long story short, I ended up just buying a wrecked 01 sentra and putting that motor in.

I'd say use a stock motor replacement (or stock DE block). Check all of the local junkyards around you.

Re-using a crank that's been through rod knock is very iffy. You don't want to get everything back together and find out the crank is bad and do it all again.

Just remember to transfer EVERYTHING from the current block to the block you get (i.e. mounts, crossmember, brackets, oil filter housing). Do that and it's cake.

Thanks for the help guys. Time to start looking for a bottom end, hopefully our problem is rod knock and not something else. I might drain the oil out on Sunday and see what it looks like. Car might be sitting for a while while we get the funds.

Ok, thanks for the help guys. We've decided that the car is going to sit for a few weeks while we get a VE on the way. Might as well upgrade.