Crank keys.
 

You know that little key in the crank (same as the one for the cam pulley). Suppose by chance you put one in there the isn't quite as wide as the slot, and suppose your crank is off maybe a degree or two. What kind of running trouble could this cause.

See I bought some cheap azz woodruff key assortment from discount and had to use one that wasn't quite as wide as the crank slot. I figured it wouldn't matter because it probably equated to only a degree or two difference and that it would be under constant load so it wouldn't be constantly changing. But it seems the car is making a little bit of knocking, but only at a certain rpm range and depending on how fast I rev the engine. Could this be caused by the cam and distributor timing bouncing from the smaller crank key?

I don't even know why I am asking because I am going to pull the key and replace with the correct Mopar one I have in the garage anyways. But could something like a change in distributor and cam timing make the car knock slightly?

knock as in pinging and knocking or knock as in rod knock, I'm assuming the first. If so timing is everything and considering that every Mopar I've ever owned has been sensitive to heat and humidity I would say yes. As far as an in depth explanation, I can't give ya one. Other than Air Fuel and Spark, they are like a symphony, if one is even slightly off it sounds like shit

Well it doesn't sound like my last rod knock. Wouldn't that be constant knocking? Thats the way it was last time. This is only at certain RPM's and also seems to depend on the crank loading. Like its fine and then when the engine unloads a little as the trans shifts it knocks a little. But if I free rev the engine in Neutral it sounds fine.

Also the engine sounds fine and quiet a lot of the time. If its a damn rod knock I am gonna fricking give up this car. I don't even know how it could have developed another rod knock, so I hope its not that.

I'll be opening up the bottom end....again this Thursday. Also gonna swap that crank key. I probably would have done that earlier but I don't really have the proper puller to get the timing pulley off the crank.

Just goes to show that I should have made sure all the little things were right the first time.

Like I said I doubt it's a rod knock, rod knocks can be more prevelant at certain rpm's due to harmonics, but again you would here it in some way consistently. Not intermittently

Well that makes me feel a little better, especially knowing I don't have balance shafts. It would probably be even more noticable now than it was when I first had a rod knock a year ago, cause I had balance shafts then.

I just realized I misspelled hear, oh well, hget that key swapped and you shall have a answer

:lol:!!!! Thats classic... you misspell another word in your post correcting yourself

man you be sick and hallucinating a spell words right :P

:wtf:

I cannot get the crank timing pulley off anyways. Its stuck on there good. I tried two different style pullers and I had no luck. Its on there so tight though that I doubt it is bouncing back and forth like I thought earlier. I also dropped the pan and checked the rods and crank and they seem to be fine and within clearance when I used my feeler guage.

I just lined it all back up and re installed the timing belt and will redo the ignition timing, maybe this will fix the problem.