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buying a tracker with piston slap?

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Offline drumsaregood46

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buying a tracker with piston slap?
« on: September 07, 2008, 04:18:24 PM »
I found a 1998 Chevy tracker. From my understanding it's the same as an older track/kick but with a different body. This one has 118k on it. It starts right up, blows no blue smoke, but there is a LOUD ticking noise coming from under the hood. It increases in frequency with engine speed. I had never heard anything like it, it was so loud it sounded more like a heat shield was loose at first, but it isn't a rattle the sound changed directly with engine speed. I read the board and found these little guys like to develop "piston slap".

I'm pretty sure the sound was piston slap however I didn't run the engine long enough to warm it up and see if it goes away. I'm going to take another look at it because the dealer seems to think the engine is about to blow and is selling it for way cheap ($1000).

If I can determine for sure that this sound is just piston slap should I buy this tracker? I've read there a quite a few guys on here who have had piston slap for over 100k miles (and I believe one guy has a turbo kick that slaps......madness!)

Lastly is the 1998 tracker as capable off road as an older one (first body style)?
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Offline pidder

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Re: buying a tracker with piston slap?
« Reply #1 on: September 07, 2008, 05:23:06 PM »
Check very carefully where the sound is coming from.   I had a similar experience but it was the idle air control valve.  Apparently a solenoid activated valve that opens and closes to help control the idle when there is a draw on the electrical circuit.  Situated in the throttle body.  Mine was an older tracker but sounds like a similar problem .  Might be better than piston slap. 
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Offline crgm101

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Re: buying a tracker with piston slap?
« Reply #2 on: September 07, 2008, 05:35:11 PM »
i had a very loud slapping noise on my sammy when i bought it it turned out to be that the wrist pin broke and was smacking the piston sleeve. i am sure it is rare,but an expensive repair i would do a compression check just to be sure. if it is broken you get no compression of course. i couldnt believe the freaking thing still ran.
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Offline sunrunner891

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Re: buying a tracker with piston slap?
« Reply #3 on: September 07, 2008, 06:18:36 PM »
I had allot of ticking going on in my 1.6l so today I took off the valve cover to adjust the valves and 3 of the philips screws which hold down the rocker  arm rod were out. I mean loosened off to the point they were just sitting in the holes. 3 of them.
Torqued em down and adjusted the valves. Big improvement for a motor with 200k, its pretty quiet now.
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Offline kubik1981

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Re: buying a tracker with piston slap?
« Reply #4 on: September 07, 2008, 06:48:31 PM »
mine had a bad rattle and come to find out it was the number 4 cylinder rod bearing was pretty much toasted
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Offline beercheck

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Re: buying a tracker with piston slap?
« Reply #5 on: September 07, 2008, 07:09:40 PM »
Perhaps a long shot, but any chance it's just a bad exhaust manifold seal?  A leak right near one of the exhaust ports will make a loud ticking sound matched to engine speed that sounds like something much, much worse to the uninitiated. 
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Offline kubik1981

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Re: buying a tracker with piston slap?
« Reply #6 on: September 07, 2008, 07:49:19 PM »
also could be a bad throw out bearing on clutch if that fork wore out the bearing could be rubbing on the pressure plate causing a ticking or slaping sound
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Offline Drone637

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Re: buying a tracker with piston slap?
« Reply #7 on: September 07, 2008, 07:54:17 PM »
As for the difference between the two, the 96-98 is very similar to the 89-95.  :)  The front end uses a larger spline in the diff and they have different computers.  You also have the 16 valve in all the two doors instead of just the 95s.  But there is no real difference in the capability due to the rest of the Tracker being the same.
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95sidekick

Re: buying a tracker with piston slap?
« Reply #8 on: September 08, 2008, 04:53:28 PM »
hey is this the v6 tracker or the 4 cyl ? i work at a suzuki dealer way over here in canada an theyre is quite a few of the v6 ones with timing chains making real bad ticking noises , they strech an start slapping again the tentioners. its a fairly easy fix  jsut gotta reaplace all the tentioners and chains , but its pretty costly?. ddunno if that helps at all ?

an as for capabile off road i think they better they have more power an basically same chassis so you can lift them an everything just like the old ones

hope this helps
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