Breathing new life into the 318 in the Scamp!

Good idea. Converter bolts do sound ugly when they get loose.

It just happened all of a sudden. It wasn't like a quiet noise that progressively got worse. The car was idling and it just started making it.

Another thing that occurred to me is that I tac welded a splash shield into the oil pan. I suppose if something changed shape in the heat, it could be hitting a balancer.

Before I tear the engine down, if I end up going as far as pulling it, I'm going to take the pan off, if I can't see anything in the valvetrain.

It's a little too low pitched to sound like a valvetrain issue, but I did catch it at the right time to keep it from getting any worse than whatever is hitting, be it a crank journal or whatever it is.

The thing that spooks me about it, though, and one reason why I don't have high hopes for this crank, is that I had no temp on the gauge. The sending unit that was on my 2bbl never made it's way on to the 4bbl intake. there was one that I had, but I got no reading off of it at the gauge. I need to check the connector again and if I get signal on full ground, I'm going to replace the sending unit.

If the connecting rod took a shot, it's probably from heat.