Was the oil light on? It may have been lifters making the noise, hard to say when can't actually hear it. I would check the mains, I've had three motors with bad mains and good rod bearings.

 

Like SPG-Gasm wrote, check the mains, do the middle first and over (away from the oil pump) they'll be the worst likely. The balance shafts are fed off the middle.

Have a video of the noise by any chance?

 

I dont, cars all tore apart now. I'll check the mains tomorrow. Heard i dont want to do the middle till i get used to it? First timer. Going in from oil pan

 

Can you visually inspect the bottoms of the cylinder bores with a scope? If the piston skirts expanded from too much heat, they'll leave marks up the bores from knocking against the sides.

If the gouges aren't too bad, you can remove the head and replace pistons from the top.

 

It's pretty much always the pistons, usually #4. Do check the mains, #3 will be trashed. I've got plenty of used pistons if your block is not too torn up

 

Thanks for the info guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Mains look good

Good news! Main bearings all look good not even a scratch on bearing or journal. Starting to think its coming fom up top more. Pulled valve cover off previously and started it momentarily, sound seemed underneath there. Is this good news? Where should i go next? Right side of engine by the coolant outlet is where knock seems loudest. Cylinder walls look good too. Wrist pins maybe?

 

?

How do I know if the engine is original, when looking at the 2.0 high pressure engines for 2001 they all have black direct ignitions in color. mines the red plastic. I dont know if its possible to convert it to say a N or H engine low pressure. Mine being the K vin. ????

 

No oil light on

 

if that car is actually an 01 (does it have a maf sensor in the air intake) than that red di needs to be replaced with a black asap. dont drive the car with the red one

 

Have you checked to see how far out your timing chain tensioner is out? You could very well be hearing your timing chain rapping like my Viggen was.

Here is a sample of what it kind of sounds like (a bit different in person)...

This is the info for specifications and how to remove to check the length of the tensioner leg. Mine was at 15.5mm and was making a pretty good racket.

http://www.thesaabsite.com/saab-tensioner-information.htm

 

I had a waterpump go partially bad that had sort of a box-of-rocks knock-like sound..

 

^ This as well. Mine sounded awful when it failed. Not the typical whine... more of a clanking noise.

 

This was how my car sounded when the waterpump failed...

 

Wow you guys got it all. The only problem is it is on the opposite side as drive pulleys. Im going to get all oil clearences dead on, put back together and make a video. Make it easier on all of you. Thanks again!

 

The car does have MAF sensor in air filter duct, I looked online to see if it should have a black one, sure enough it should. who the hell would do that. cheap people i guess red ones are 100 dollars less than black one. Am i getting some serious spark knock? i dont know. Got everthing back together gonna try to post a vid. How can i be sure thats not a 900 moter or somthing weird. Thats what my 97' 900SE engine was like red DI. Any thoughts?

 

You should have a black DI, as that's the kind that is designed to work with the car's Trionic 7 engine management.

There should not be a red one on there at all...

 

How do i upload a vid onto this site?

 

Upload it to youtube, then copy the link of your video from the address bar and paste it into a new post...

 

DSCF0287.MOV - YouTube

 

Videos up!!!!!!!

 

See if you can borrow a bore scope from somebody and look down through the spark plug holes at the top of the pistons. I would suspect a burnt piston. Again, like someone else said it can be done with just the head and pan removal.

 

Got a black DIC it was off a 9-5 2.3L, numbers checked out the same tho. No change in running nor knock. ugh....

 

Sounds like a motor that's been sitting for awhile with no oil. Have you checked oil pressure at all? The lifters are definitely making noise, but also sounds like there is some rod noise at the end of the video. Did you check the bearing clearances with plasti-gauge?

 

I did exept #5 main bearing couldnt get out wiggle it out of there. I havnt checked oil pressure exept having valve cover of and running for a sec, shot out of ther pretty good. Suppose i check were oil sensor goes in?

 

I would check with a gauge to get a good number. All the bearings were on spec'd clearances? For oil pressure I test @ the oil line on the turbo, where it connects to the oil filter housing.

 

0.0006-0.0024 spec. They were almost all at 0.0015 maybe a touch over-main and rod bearings.

 

Also no change in knock when disconnecting injector clips one at a time