Hey, you can't have all of this fun without me!! VBG Seriously some of what is being said about piston slap is true. Piston slap alone is NOT a reason to tear an engine down and do a repair. Piston slap is in fact normal on a cold engine because aluminum expands faster than the cast iron engine block. if the piston is tight enough cold, it will be too tight when warmed up. Piston slap should a repair actually be indicated actually does not even mean that a piston needs to be replaced! If the problem is a collapsed skirt, it can in many cases be "knurled" and reshaped to take up the slightly excessive clearance. A knurled piston is one that has many tiny marks made into it's surface, that cause the outer edges of the mark to rise up. Sort of like the way a center punch makes a "crater" in a piece of metal. These two links give both a description of knurling, and an actual application. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knurling http://www.hastingsmfg.com/ServiceTips/international_v8_engines.htm Now the one big problem I have with this thread is the idea that $100 in parts, a saturday, and a twelve pack of beer is all that is required to make the noise go away. I do understand the perception that to the right person pulling and reinstalling a piston isn't difficult to do but the reality is to do it right is in fact much different. This is a job where a very simple mistake can cause a major engine failure after the attempt. Plus if it's 4WD just getting the oil pan off and back on will take up most of your staurday, and that's if you have a hoist. People have been successful simply replacing a piston(s) in chassis but not always successful at eliminating piston noise or slap. That's because the piston is only half of the equation, cylinder wear or taper could easily be coming into play, and I would leave those checks/measurements up to a qualified machinist. Plus we still have the little issue of pressing the piston pin through the rod. Very few shops have the equipment to do that, let alone DIY's. There are many traps lurking in this repair that can make the whole attempt go south in a hurry. One common trap is as simple as not torquing the intake manifold in the correct order! An incorrect torque sequence distorts the engine block, and that changes the line bore of the engine resulting in main bearing/camshaft bearing wear. The $64,000 question from there is, does the resulting wear end up causing the engine to actually fail? Sometimes it does, and sometimes it does not. Lastly, stroke length plays a role in piston slap issues. The longer the stroke, the more often a piston skirt has to be shortened for clearance issues. Cylinder block deck height and other design issues can also impact piston design. The longer that the skirts can be, the less likely it is that piston slap is likely to occur. Although think about it, the longer the skirts, the greater the piston mass and you start impacting engine efficiency due to inertial, and frictional losses. Plus you can impact RPM and horsepower. It's all an intricate dance that even the manufactures are not going to be perfect at every time. That's why we have tolerances, and some things (noises) are allowable even if they are not completely desireable.

How hot is the transmission getting? Are you using scan data to report the actual transmission temperature? My first thought is that the transmission cooler inside the radiator might be restricted. If that's the case, and you have added an external cooler in series with the radiator, then you probably haven't fixed the problem yet. The fluid may simply not be moving fast enough to sufficiently cool the transmission. Worse yet, this cooled fluid is the main lubrication for the transmission before it goes back to the pan. That means if the fluid flow through the cooler is low, the tranny could be starving for lubrication. It takes a huge fluid to air cooler to eliminate the one in the radiator. Most coolers people buy are just to supplement the factory original in the radiator. They usually are not intended to eliminate the factory cooler. But that may be what you need in this case, or else a radiator repair/replacement. One thing you need to do is get a power flow diagram for the transmission. To get Fourth Gear, you need to see which clutches need to be applied. Then compare that to reverse, and overdrive I expect is fouirth, you just may be referring to the lock-up convertor application. When the tranny fails, what are you getting when you put it into reverse, an engine flare (free rev)? Is this what happens when it tries to shift from third to fourth as well?

Thanks earthworm! I am replacing the entire belt tensioner, but have to remove the PS pump first to get it off. The only thing I am having trouble with now is getting one last bolt off that holds the power steering pump, which you have to remove to remove the tensioner. It is in the back of the pump, on the opposite side where the pulley is. In the meantime, I have removed so much stuff just to be able to get this tensioner off, it is ridiculous: PCV valve hose Canister hose/line Both PS pump hoses (I did not want to have to do that!) Coolant overflow tank Two alternator bolts Belt Idler pulley What should be an easy job has turned out to be a big one! Now back to that final PS pump bolt: the problem is it is almost impossible to access: a) On the side of the pump facing the front of the car is the cylinder head, which prevents a wrench from fitting. b) On the side opposite the PS pump pulley, 1/2" away there is a vertical heater hose attached to the bottom of the head/intake manifold, and there is one of those annoying spring-type clamps holding it on. The problem is access is so tight, it is impossible to maneuver pliers in there from any angle, including those special pliers for removing the spring-type clamps. And the prongs of the clamp are only 1/4" or so from the wall of the PS pump, and deep down from the top. And one of the prongs is under the manifold! (The problem is I cannot get to the PS pump bolt from the top unless I remove the heater hose. But I cannot remove the heater hose unless I remove the PS pump! Catch-22. The manufacturer must have assembled the intake manifold/heater hose together as a unit, without regard to where the spring-clamp faced???) c) And finally, if I try to access the PS pump from under the car, it will be very hard, as it is high up, with almost no room to fit my hand in around the exhaust pipe, oil filter, cross-member, etc. Although I admit I have not tried this yet. d) On the side of the PS pump facing the firewall, there is a bracket attached to the PS pump holder bracket that makes accessing the final PS pump bolt hard. I could disconnect this bracket (I have already disconnected one side at the PS pump holder bracket), but here is the weird part: no wrench will fit over the nut holding the other end of the bracket in place! I have tried 10, 11, 12, and 13 mm. I have also tried 7/16" and 1/2". 11 and 12 mm seem too big. 10 is too small. Same with 7/16" and 1/2". The problem is I really cannot see the nut to see what the problem is, since the nut is over a vertical stud attached to the bottom of the intake manifold, and the nut is facing down, towards the ground. I assume it is a hex nut I think it feels like one, but it is hard to completely feel, since I cannot get my fingers all the way around it. You know what? It looks like one of those nut caps that my car uses to hold the thermostat housing in place: capped hex nut, with a star shaped design protruding out on the cap part. Really weird. But it is supposed to be torqued 48 lb. ft., which seems like a lot for a small nut, although it is ultimately connected to an engine mount. If I only could get that nut and bracket out of the way, then I would be able to turn a wrench to get the final PS pump bolt out. Another problem is, assuming I can find the right size wrench or socket, this nut is torqued to around 48 lb. ft., and there is limited access to get a 3/8" ratchet in there to loosen it. A 1/4" ratchet will not have enough torque. And maybe not even a 10 mm wrench. Perhaps I will have to remove the blower motor too. I just don't know what to do. Julie

I love my suction side "The Pool Cleaner" (POOLVERGNUEGEN). It cleans every bit of our vinyl pool. I like that I can run it under the solar cover. If you have fiberglass steps they make replacement "skirts" that keep it from getting caught on them. Tracker Jacuzzi Cleaner is essentially the same machine Our builder lent us an electric robot thing to clean up the pool after he tore out and replaced our concrete. (we didn't want the fine concrete particles going to our filter). So glad I got to try it.....hated having to haul it our of the pool to empty it, and it didn't do that great a job. I also didn't like the cord across the deck..... Here is a link that might be useful: POOLVERGNUEGEN