Hey all,
First post here and its one where I need a bit of help. This post might get fairly long but just to get as many details as I can and I'm not very knowledgeable about engines.
Video of the issue:
I have a 1998 VS Statesman 50th Anniversary with a stock L67 ecotec in it and in the last few months it has started behaving weirder and performing worse.
The car currently has 178000km on it and started with 175000km when I first had it serviced. The car mostly sat in the garage and was used about once a week for grocery shopping or going down to the local milk bar for a loaf of bread. Since then its become my transport to and from work 5 days a week as well as a trip to my trainer on the weekend so its now being used every day of the week.
It started behaving weird and making noises around January/February of this year. I had the car serviced at a local mechanic in November of last year and it performed fine until then. During March it develops a rattling sound in addition a knocking sound from the engine. I had the Transmission serviced where my mechanic noted that the engine had Knock and they had suspected rod knock. They had given me the option of using a thicker oil during the next service to see if it would help. The same day, I asked my boss at my work to listen to it as he is also a mechanic and he suspected that it was Balance shaft knock and he told me to just drive the car and not worry about having to rebuild the engine over it yet if it was the Balance shaft.
Fast forward a few weeks, the engine gets worse. It begins idling roughly while in Park or Neutral and the engine gets louder with the noise its producing and now during this last week, I caved in and decided to have the engine oil changed to something thicker as well as some Liqui Moly Friction Reducer added since it was due for a service again. My Mechanics noted that it had gotten worse and were not sure what it could be or how we could help. They suggested taking it back to Holden to have it checked.
I once again asked my boss for help where I showed him the video I have linked above. He mentioned a few issues that it could possibly be and suggested taking the car to have it looked at by an engine reconditioning specialist.
As I was driving home on the 21/04, the engine begins making the same rough idling noise while I was driving. I take it to the specialist my boss had recommended on the 23/04 and he has a listen to the engine and he believes it not to be an issue with the internals of the engine, but possibly with the pulleys or the pulley bearings on the front of the engine or potentially something with the supercharger.
I will be taking it to a Holden specialist soon to see what they believe it to be, but I wanted to see if anyone could have any idea of what it could be or has experienced this before to help me figure this problem out.
I'll try to answer any questions about it as best I can to help give as much information as possible.
